The News
Apple said it would spend $500 billion in the US over the next four years and hire 20,000 new employees, as the tech giant seeks to avert some of the Trump administration’s tariffs on Chinese imports.
The announcement came a week after the iPhone maker’s CEO Tim Cook met President Donald Trump and follows similar pledges from other tech giants Microsoft, Softbank, Oracle, and OpenAI to boost US investments.
Apple made a similar commitment in 2018 during Trump’s first term, which also included 20,000 new jobs and $350 billion investment, as well as an Apple campus in Austin, Texas that remains under construction.
The company received tariff exemptions for some of its products then — and Cook’s fresh pledge suggests Apple is taking a similar approach this time, although it’s unclear how much of the new investment was already planned, The Verge noted.
SIGNALS
Apple’s investment emphasizes Big Tech’s commitment to spend on AI
Silicon Valley has surged investment into America’s artificial intelligence infrastructure, as both the new Trump administration and tech companies work to bolster US innovation over China. On the president’s first day in office, OpenAI and other firms promised $500 billion for a joint AI infrastructure project, Stargate, meant to kickstart a new American “golden age,” and Apple’s new pledge includes building a new AI data center in Houston. But the strategy has not gone unquestioned: Chinese AI startup DeepSeek’s emergence in January caused a record-breaking US tech stock rout as investors mulled how much money AI really needs, while Microsoft has reported scaled back its data center footprint in the US, indicating a potential oversupply, analysts said.
Tech antitrust could be point of continuation between Trump, Biden
Apple faces multiple antitrust lawsuits in the US, including one filed during Donald Trump’s first term. Some industry analysts predicted Trump would drop at least some antitrust actions targeting Big Tech, especially those filed by the previous Biden administration, but so far, a toughened approach to antitrust enforcement ”marks a rare area of alignment″ between the two administrations, Bloomberg wrote. And Gail Slater, Trump’s pick to lead antitrust at the Justice Department, is widely respected “across the aisle,” The Washington Post noted. Yet Trump has shown far more openness to Big Tech the time around, especially with Tesla CEO Elon Musk effectively operating as his right hand in overhauling government operations. Some Trump critics have warned that he “could turn antitrust enforcement into a tool for rewarding or punishing companies,” depending on how he personally feels about them, the Post wrote.