Apple Pledges $1 Billion to Boost U.S. Manufacturing

Apple will put $1 billion into a special fund to help give advanced manufacturing in the U.S. a boost, CEO Tim Cook said in an interview with CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Wednesday.

Cook went on to say that creating advanced manufacturing jobs within the US is one of Apple’s top priorities. And it’s part of a larger effort by Apple to create more jobs across its entire ecosystem, from app developers to Apple suppliers. In addition to employing about 80,000 employees directly, Cupertino has also created two million jobs via the app economy in the United States, according to MarketWatch. Apple will officially announce the initial $1 billion investment later on this month, Cook added.

The move could also appease the current administration, as President Trump has made bringing manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. a core part of his agenda. While on the campaign trail, then-candidate Trump famously stated that he would compel Apple to start manufacturing its devices within the U.S. Apple, for its part, has had its eye on the advanced manufacturing industry for quite a while, and Cook hopes the investment will help to foster the industry and job creation as a whole.

“It’s $1 billion of our U.S. money,” Cook said. “But yeah, we’re really proud to do it. And by doing that, we can be the ripple in the pond. Because if we can create many manufacturing jobs around — those manufacturing jobs create more jobs around them, because you have a service industry that builds up around them.”

It’s currently unknown whether the investment has anything to do with Apple’s rumored joint project with Foxconn to build a $7 billion display manufacturing plant in the United States. While that project isn’t set in stone yet, if Foxconn does build a facility on U.S. soil, it could serve as one piece of a larger Apple effort to spur the manufacturing industry in the country.