Apple Inc on Monday said that it would open an engineering hub in North Carolina, marking its first major campus on the US’ east coast as part of an increased commitment to investing domestically.
The Cupertino, California-based technology giant said that it would spend US$1 billion in the area around Raleigh Durham and Chapel Hill, known as the Research Triangle and home to other big companies that have a significant presence there, including IBM Corp, Cisco Systems Inc and GlaxoSmithKline PLC.
Apple said that it would create 3,000 jobs at the new site in machine learning, artificial intelligence and software engineering.
Photo: Reuters
Apple’s announcement is part of the iPhone maker’s planned 20 percent increase in US investments over the next five years, allocating US$430 billion in direct spending on US-based suppliers, data center investments, capital expenditures in the US and other projects, including dozens of Apple TV+ productions, and research and development on technologies such as custom silicon and 5G.
The effort would result in 20,000 new jobs, including in San Diego; Los Angeles; Boulder, Colorado; and Boston by 2026, the company said in a statement.
“At this moment of recovery and rebuilding, Apple is doubling down on our commitment to US innovation and manufacturing with a generational investment reaching communities across all 50 states,” Apple chief executive officer Tim Cook said.
Over the past three years, Apple’s investments have outpaced its original five-year goal of US$350 billion set in 2018, the company said.
However, the firm has also been growing. Its shares have gained about 200 percent since the previous investment plan was announced in January 2018, and the company is now worth more than US$2 trillion.
Apple said that it is also the US’ biggest taxpayer, having paid US$45 billion in domestic corporate income taxes in the past five years.
An index launched a year ago to give investors greater exposure to China’s Internet giants is now the world’s worst-performing major technology gauge. The Hang Seng Tech Index has been on a roller-coaster ride in the past 12 months. The gauge, which marks its first anniversary on Tuesday, was up 59 percent at its February peak, but has since seen more than US$551 billion in market value wiped out amid Beijing’s clampdown on the sector. That has reduced its gain to nearly 6 percent, compared with more than 40 percent for the MSCI World Information Technology Index and the NASDAQ-100 Index. The
EDUCATION AS WELFARE: New regulations threaten to upend the lucrative private education sector that teaches the public school curriculum to paying families China unveiled a sweeping overhaul of its US$100 billion education tech sector, banning companies that teach the school curriculum from earning profit, raising capital or going public. Beijing on Saturday published an array of regulations that together threaten to overturn the sector and jeopardize billions of dollars in foreign investment. Companies that teach school subjects can no longer accept overseas investment, which could include capital from the offshore registered entities of Chinese firms, according to a notice released by the Chinese State Council. Those in violation of that rule must take steps to rectify the situation, the country’s most powerful administrative
Facebook Inc on Wednesday reported its profit doubled in the second quarter as digital advertising surged, but warned of cooler growth in the months ahead in an update that sent its shares sinking. Profit rose to US$10.4 billion on revenue of US$29 billion, a 56 percent increase from last year, mainly from an increase in ad revenue, Facebook said. The number of people using the social network monthly climbed to 2.9 billion, a year-on-year gain of 7 percent, while about 3.5 billion people used at least one of the company’s apps, including Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger. “We had a strong quarter, as we
‘IN ITS INFANCY’: The company’s 12-inch fab in Arizona is to be its first major overseas chip manufacturing site, while the fab in Japan would be its second, if it is constructed Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating the feasibility of constructing a semiconductor fabrication plant in Germany as it continues to expand overseas, it said yesterday. A shareholder at the contract chipmaker’s annual general meeting in Hsinchu City yesterday asked about the possibility following media reports earlier this month that TSMC was approached by the German government about building a chip fab in the country, as Europe joins the US and China in establishing local chip supplies in a bid to avert future chip shortages. “About the German fab, we are seriously looking into it, but it is still in its
RSS