Apple CEO Tim Cook said Wednesday his company is putting $1 billion into a fund to invest in advanced manufacturing jobs in the United States.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said Wednesday his company is putting $1 billion into a fund to invest in advanced manufacturing jobs in the United States.
The first $1 billion is an initial donation, Cook said, and Apple already has talked to one company it wants to invest in. He did not identify the company, but said more about the fund will be announced later this month.
“By doing that, we can be the ripple in the pond, ” Cook said. “If we can create many manufacturing jobs, those manufacturing jobs create more jobs around them because you have a service industry that builds up around them.”
Cook added Apple will give money to programs to train more app developers as well, with an announcement coming this summer.
“You can see, we’re really looking at this thing deeply, ” he said. “How do we grow our employee base? How do we grow our developer base? And how do we grow manufacturing? And you will see us bring things to market in all of those areas across this year.”
Apple is among a growing number of companies announcing moves to add to American jobs in the wake of the election of President Donald Trump, who campaigned on bringing jobs back from overseas.
Cook pointed out Apple provides more than 100,000 jobs already in the United States and uses many American suppliers, including Corning, which makes the screens for iPhones and iPads.
