APPLE BUILDS AUSTIN CAMPUS

APPLE says it will invest $1 billion (R14bn) to expand its operations in Austin, Texas, by constructing a new employee campus in the area, large enough to house 15 000 additional employees. Further facilities will also be established in Culver City, Seattle and San Diego, and existing sites in Pittsburgh and Boulder will be expanded over the next three years. In a statement on its website yesterday, the company said it was also considering other US regions for growth. “With this new expansion, we’re redoubling our commitment to cultivating the hi-tech sector and workforce nationwide,” Apple chief executive Tim Cook said in the statement. The company said the second Austin building would cater to a wide range of business disciplines, including R&D, sales, customer support and engineering. Austin is already the largest home for Apple employees after the iPhone-maker’s Cupertino headquarters, with about 6 200 people working at the existing site about 1.6km from the location of the new facility. The investment will follow announcements from other major tech companies, which have been laying out their US expansion plans. E-commerce giant Amazon recently revealed plans to build a major new campus in New York, while Google has opened new offices in sites including Boulder, Colorado. Among US President Donald Trump’s “America First” policies were promises to bring manufacturing jobs back to the US from Asia and businesses have been increasing efforts to hire locally to avoid conflict. Apple has long used China as its production base for everything from the signature iPhone to iPads and Macs. I Bloomberg