Apple is set to significantly increase its domestic footprint, with plans to invest $500 billion in the United States and hire 20,000 people over the next four years. The company also announced it will open a factory in Texas to manufacture the sophisticated servers that drive its artificial intelligence initiatives.
“We are bullish on the future of American innovation, and we’re proud to build on our longstanding U.S. investments,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, in a statement. The announcement comes shortly after Cook met with former President Donald Trump. While Apple made similar pledges during both the Trump and Biden administrations, some previous promises have yet to be fully realized.
Following the meeting, Trump indicated that Apple would shift production to the United States, stating, “They’re going to build here instead because they don’t want to pay the tariffs,” during a speech.
The planned investment includes a new 250,000-square-foot facility in Houston, slated to begin manufacturing artificial intelligence servers next year. The servers, which will be produced by the Taiwanese electronics giant Foxconn, are intended to bolster Apple’s data center capacity across North Carolina, Oregon, Arizona, and Nevada.
Despite this expansion, the bulk of Apple’s product manufacturing, including iPhones, iPads, and Macs, will continue to take place in Asia. The company’s overseas manufacturing practices have been a point of contention, particularly with Trump, who, since before he was first elected in 2016, has urged Apple to move production to the United States. During the first Trump administration, in response to increasing tariffs on China in 2019, Apple began shifting some manufacturing to countries like Vietnam and India, but no significant production was brought back to the U.S.