Apple says it will invest $350 billion in the U.S. over the next five years
Apple (AAPL) is making a major investment in the U.S. economy.
In a release on Wednesday afternoon, the world’s largest publicly-traded company said it would make a “direct contribution” of $350 billion into the U.S. economy over the next five years.
The company said this number does not include ongoing tax payments, or tax revenue generated by wages paid to employees or sales tax on Apple products.
Apple said its capital expenditures, a tax payment due to repatriating overseas profits, and investments in manufacturing in the U.S. will account for $75 billion of its contributions. The company also said it will invest $30 billion to create 20,000 new jobs at existing campuses and will also open a new campus in the U.S.
“Apple is a success story that could only have happened in America, and we are proud to build on our long history of support for the US economy,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement on Wednesday.
“We believe deeply in the power of American ingenuity, and we are focusing our investments in areas where we can have a direct impact on job creation and job preparedness. We have a deep sense of responsibility to give back to our country and the people who help make our success possible.”
Apple’s announcement is the latest in a series of corporate declarations that companies would increase investment following the passage of a tax bill late last year which cuts the corporate tax rate to 21% from 35%. Apple did not, however, announce a special bonus for employees or pledge to increase wages, as many companies have done. The company also did not explicitly mention that its decision was influenced by the passage of last year’s tax bill.
In 2017, President Donald Trump said that Cook told him the company committed to build three manufacturing plants in the U.S., according to the Wall Street Journal.
“I spoke to [Tim Cook], he’s promised me three big plants—big, big, big,” Trump said to the Journal.
“I said you know, Tim, unless you start building your plants in this country, I won’t consider my administration an economic success. He called me, and he said they are going forward.”
Apple’s announcement Wednesday did not specify how many plants it will build.
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Myles Udland is a writer at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter @MylesUdland
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