Apple has announced plans to invest $500 billion in the United States over the next four years and hire 20,000 new workers, as the company seeks relief from President Donald Trump’s tariffs on goods imported from China.
Bloomberg reports that in a move to bolster its domestic presence and potentially avoid hefty tariffs, Apple has committed to investing $500 billion in the United States over the next four years. The tech giant also pledged to create 20,000 new jobs, marking its biggest U.S. investment commitment to date. The announcement comes on the heels of a meeting between President Donald Trump and Apple CEO Tim Cook in the Oval Office last week. Cook has joined the parade of tech titans attempting to repair their relationship with Donald Trump following his return to power.
As part of the investment plan, Apple will begin producing AI servers at a new manufacturing facility in Houston, Texas. The company also intends to establish a supplier academy in Michigan and increase spending with its existing U.S. suppliers. The $500 billion investment and job creation targets surpass Apple’s previous commitment made in 2021 to invest $430 billion locally over a five-year period.
President Trump, who has threatened to impose an additional 10 percent tax on items imported from China, where Apple manufactures the majority of its products, implied that the iPhone maker is investing locally to avoid paying tariffs. Cook, however, framed the decision as a demonstration of Apple’s confidence in the future of American innovation.
“We are bullish on the future of American innovation, and we’re proud to build on our long-standing U.S. investments with this $500 billion commitment to our country’s future,” Cook stated. “We’ll keep working with people and companies across this country to help write an extraordinary new chapter in the history of American innovation.”
During Trump’s first administration, Cook successfully persuaded the president to spare the iPhone from tariffs by arguing that the tax would benefit competitors like South Korea’s Samsung. Apple also made several announcements about U.S. investments during that time, crediting Trump with Mac Pro manufacturing ramping up in Texas.
As part of the new investment plan, Apple and Foxconn will begin producing servers for the cloud component of Apple Intelligence, called Private Cloud Compute, in Houston later this year. A 250,000-square-foot facility dedicated to this manufacturing is set to open in the city next year. The Private Cloud Compute servers will utilize advanced M-series chips, which are already found in Apple’s Mac computers but will continue to be produced in Taiwan.
Apple also plans to expand its data center capacity in Arizona, Oregon, Iowa, Nevada, and North Carolina, all states where the company already has a presence. The company confirmed that mass production of chips started at a TSMC facility in Arizona last month, with the plant reportedly building chips for some Apple Watches and iPads.
The 20,000 additional jobs will focus on research and development, silicon engineering, and AI. Apple is also opening a manufacturing academy in Detroit to assist smaller companies with manufacturing and is doubling its U.S. manufacturing fund to $10 billion.
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‘I feel trapped’: how home ownership has become a nightmare for many Americans
Scores in the US say they’re grappling with raised mortgage and loan interest rates and exploding insurance premiums
I bought my home in a hurry in 2020,” said Meg, 60, an office manager from Maryland. “It was less expensive to take on a mortgage than to keep paying ever-increasing rents for my college-student daughter and me.”
Now housing costs consume 50% of her income.
Although Meg said she felt “grateful to have our little house”, the purchase has lost its luster. Her aging row home needs various repairs, while other costs associated with home ownership rose continually too.
“I had to take out an additional mortgage to replace the heat and AC system,” she said. “I keep increasing the deductibles on the home insurance to try to keep the premiums down. They ratchet up every year, while my income does not. I won’t be able to do more repairs unless our circumstances change significantly. Our necessities consume 75% of my income, with 50% of that housing costs.”
Meg was among scores of homeowners from across the US who shared with the Guardian how much they have been struggling with the rising cost of home ownership.
Elevated mortgage and loan interest rates, exploding home insurance premiums and rising property taxes in many parts of the country, as well as higher costs for energy and eye-watering costs for home maintenance works have flipped the dream of owning a home into a nightmare for many Americans.
Homeowners who had assumed their properties would become valuable assets and provide security described their homes as “money pits” and “financial burdens”, and said they felt stuck in homes they could barely or no longer afford, with insurance, taxes, utilities and maintenance now often costing more than people’s mortgages.
“I’ve come to view home ownership and healthcare as destabilizing forces in my life,” said Bernie, a 45-year-old network engineer from Minneapolis. To finance owning his and his wife’s $300,000 home and saving for the future, the couple was foregoing medical and dental treatment of any kind and cutting back on expenses everywhere, he said, despite a pre-tax household income of more than $250,000.
“In four years we plan to sell our home and move full-time into an RV,” Bernie said. “Our house provides no security.”
Amie,44, a self-employed writer from rural Maine, purchased her $260,000 home in 2020, securing a 30-year fixed mortgage at an attractive 3.5% interest rate.
“Although my mortgage is reasonable, the price for anything else is causing considerable financial stress for my partner and me,” she said.
“Home oil costs are astronomical. The cost to make energy efficient repairs such as new windows, improved insulation, or heat pump installation are beyond our financial reach.
“Quotes to redo our roof range between $65,000 and $140,000, more than I make in a year. Home equity loan interest rates are at 11% now around here, and I’m scared to commit to such a big loan at the risk of losing my house if I can’t pay the monthly fee.”
Property taxes of about $4,000 annually are another worry. “They just went up again,” Amie said. “I recently had to create a payment plan for the electricity bills. If we could build a small holding on this land and get rid of this house I absolutely would. It’s completely overwhelming. I feel trapped.”
Amie’s concerns were echoed by many who said they now wanted to rid themselves of homes that had become too expensive to own and maintain, but felt mostly unable to do so: selling and moving somewhere cheaper, various people said, would force them onto higher interest mortgages; others said they had considered going back to renting, but had concluded this was not feasible either due to exponentially rising rents in many parts of the US.
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