Apple to build $1 billion campus in Austin, Texas

Apple said on Thursday it would spend $1 billion to build a second campus in Austin, Texas that will house as many as 15,000 workers, amid a broader push by many US companies to create more jobs at home.

The 133-acre campus in Austin will employ workers across various functions including research and development. The city is already home to the second largest number of Apple employees outside its headquarters in Cupertino, California.

Apple will also set up sites in Seattle, San Diego and Culver City, California and hire more than 1,000 employees in each of these locations, while also expanding operations in Pittsburgh, New York and Boulder, Colorado over the next three years.

Many American multinationals have been facing political pressure to ramp up investments at home as part of Trump’s “America First” policies, which have left the US embroiled in a bitter trade war with China. The president has also warned of tariffs on iPhones and other Apple products imported from China.

Apple’s technology rival Amazon.com Inc. last month ended a months-long search for its second headquarters, picking New York City and an area just outside Washington, D.C. for massive new offices, with plans to create thousands of jobs.

The new Austin campus will be located less than a mile away from Apple’s existing facilities, and will first house 5,000 new employees with the capacity to expand to 15,000.

The company, which moved into its sleek “spaceship” campus in Cupertino last year, said jobs at the new Austin center would include R&D, engineering, finance, operations and sales functions.