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Apple CEO Tim Cook Announces $1 Billion Boost To US Manufacturing

Apple CEO Tim Cook Announces $1 Billion Boost To US Manufacturing

The firm looks to build bridges with Trump.

Michael Minay

Michael Minay

Apple is set to make a $1 billion investment to boost high-tech manufacturing jobs in the United States, CEO Tim Cook has announced.

The news, which was revealed in an interview on TV show, Mad Money, fits in with President Donald Trump's pledge to bring manufacturing jobs back to America.

"We're announcing it today. So you're the first person I'm telling," Cook told host Jim Cramer.

"Well, not the first person because we've talked to a company that we're going to invest in already," he added.

The planned investment comes after the US president criticised Apple during his election campaign over its reliance on manufacturing the iPhone and other products outside of the USA, particularly in China.

Image Credit: PA

Apple is the latest in a string of Silicon Valley companies to attempt to build bridges with the new administration.

Amazon promised to create 100,000 US jobs over the course of the next two years, while Intel said it would put a grand total of $7 billion into a new chip-making plant in Arizona.

Overseas suppliers also seem keen to fall in line. Terry Gou, chairman of top Apple supplier Foxconn, was reported to be meeting Trump for talks in Washington, while Indian IT group, Infosys, pledged to hire 10,000 Americans in the next two years.

Cook added that Apple planned to announce its first investment venture near the end of May.

"A lot of people ask me, 'Do you think it's a company's job to create jobs?' and my response is [that] a company should have values because a company is a collection of people," said Cook.

"And people should have values, so by extension, a company should. And one of the things you do is give back.

"So how do you give back? We give back through our work in the environment, in running the company on renewable energy. We give back in job creation."

Following the presidential election, relations between the technology industry and Washington have been on shaky ground.

Many top Silicon Valley firms signed a legal filing, challenging January's proposed executive order on immigration. Apple also clashed with Trump last year over its refusal to build a tool to unlock the encrypted phone of a dead gunman.

Apple said it has already created two million jobs in the States and Cook added that the tech giant plans to hire 'thousands more' in the future.

Source: CNBC

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: Donald Trump, China, Apple