The technology company Apple announced that it will expand its center in the Texas city of Austin, where it will invest about 1,000 million dollars, which will allow more than double the current number of employees, which is about 6,000 workers.
But this will not be the only investment that the technology giant will make. As revealed on Thursday, its intentions are to open new offices in Austin (Texas), Seattle (Washington), San Diego and Culver City (California), and in the next three years expand its presence to Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania), New York and Colorado.
According to Apple, his project in Austin will have 5,000 positions in the departments of engineering, research and development, operations, finance and customer service. Eventually, the company said, there will be room for 15,000 employees there.
The other locations will house about 1,000 employees each with this announcement, it seems that Apple folded to the demands of President Donald Trump, who has criticized the company on numerous occasions for not investing more in the United States.
While they are not investments to build factories in US territory, as requested by the Republican president, these announcements appear to be a gesture of appeasement to the host of the White House.
In the US commercial fight against China, Trump warned that the prices of the iPhone, iPod and iPad could rise due to the punitive tariffs that could be imposed on China if an agreement is not reached. And he argued that the best way for Apple to avoid such consequences was to produce its devices in the United States.
In 2017, the president said that Apple had promised to open three factories in US territory. However, the equation is more difficult for Apple than for the automakers, which moved their US plants abroad to reduce costs.
The Cupertino company never took jobs abroad: it always hired out of the country. The firm is highly dependent on the Asian giant, where it manufactured most of its devices, but can increase its workforce in the United States.
A few days ago, executives from Google, Microsoft, IBM, Oracle and Qualcomm met at the White House to discuss the tensions with the presidency and the commercial conflict with China. Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, was not among those present and neither Amazon boss, Jeff Bezos.
“Apple has been a vital part of the Austin community for a quarter of a century and we are delighted that the company is stepping up its investment in our people, in this city we love so much,” Austin Mayor Steve Adler said in a statement.
