By Stephen Nellis
(Reuters) -Apple said on Monday that by 2026 it is planning to help bring a factory of a quarter of a quarter of a million square feet in Texas online to build artificial intelligence servers and will add around 20,000 research and development jobs in the US.
Apple said it is planning to spend $ 500 billion in the United States in the coming four years, although that figure includes everything, from purchases from American suppliers to filming television shows and films for its Apple TV+ service. The company refused to say how much of the figure it was already planning to spend on the existing American supply base, including companies such as Corning, which makes glass for iPhones in Kentucky.
The move comes after the media that Apple director Tim Cook met President Donald Trump last week. Many of Apple’s products that have been assembled in China can be imposed earlier this month with 10% rates imposed by Trump, although the iPhone maker has previously obtained some exemptions from China rates during the first Trump administration.
Apple made a similar announcement about his American spending plans during the first Trump administration, and said at that time that it is planned $ 350 billion in five years.
Most Apple consumer products are assembled outside the US, although many of Apple components are still being made there, including chips from Broadcom, Skyworks Solutions and Qorovo. Apple also said it started last month with mass production chips of his own design in an Arizona factory owned Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing CO (TSMC).
Bringing TSMC to Arizona and helping to introduce legislation that later became the chips act to strengthen American semiconductor production were two of Trump’s largest industrial policy movements during his first term.
Apple said on Monday that it will collaborate with Foxconn from Hon Hai industry to build a facility of 250,000 square meters in Houston, where it will compile servers that go to data centers to feed Apple Intelligence, the suite of AI functions that Help prepare e-mails. and perform other tasks. Those servers are currently being made outside the US, Apple said.
Apple also said it is planning to increase its advanced production fund from $ 5 billion to $ 10 billion, with part of the expansion an “Multibillion Dollar-Engagement from Apple to produce advanced silicon” at TSMC’s Arizona Factory. Apple has not announced any details of his deal with TSMC, but it has used the fund in the past to help partners build the infrastructure needed to deliver Apple products or services.
Apple will also open a production academy in Michigan, where its engineers, together with local university employees, offer free courses for small and medium -sized production companies in areas such as project management and production process
