Apple to add US$1b Texas campus and thousands of jobs across US

[NEW YORK] Apple said on Thursday that it would build a new US$1 billion campus in Austin, Texas, where it could eventually employ 15,000 people amid a broader expansion that will create thousands of jobs in several US cities.

The company, which currently has 90,000 workers in the United States, also plans to open 1,000-worker operations in San Diego, Seattle and Culver City, California, and to add hundreds of employees in offices in New York, Pittsburgh and Boulder, Colorado, in the next three years.

"Apple is proud to bring new investment, jobs and opportunity to cities across the United States and to significantly deepen our quarter-century partnership with the city and people of Austin," Tim Cook, Apple's chief executive, said in a statement.

The move coincides with those by other technology giants to expand beyond their West Coast roots. Amazon said last month that it would divide a planned second headquarters between sites in New York and Virginia after a yearlong beauty contest, and Google is said to be considering more than doubling its 7,000-employee workforce in New York.

Apple has been criticised for years for not doing enough for the US economy because it has made most of its products in China and stashed most of its profits abroad to avoid tax payments in the United States.

In January, after the company emerged as one of the biggest beneficiaries of changes in the tax code signed into law by President Donald Trump, it said it would invest more than US$30 billion in the United States over the next five years and create 20,000 jobs by expanding existing operations and adding a new campus.

A provision in the code allowed for a one-time repatriation of corporate cash held abroad at a lower tax rate than what would have been paid under the previous tax plan. Apple used it to bring back US$252 billion that it had stashed abroad.

The new 133-acre campus in Austin will initially employ 5,000 workers in engineering, research and development, operations, finance, sales and customer support. It will ultimately have the capacity to accommodate up to 15,000 workers. Apple said it expected that its expanded presence in Austin, where it already employs 6,000 people, would make it the area's largest employer.

Gov Greg Abbott of Texas hailed Apple's decision on Thursday as "a testament to the high-quality workforce and unmatched economic environment that Texas offers".

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