Apple reportedly leases factory as car talk swirls
The industrial facility, which is 96,000 square feet, used to be a Pepsi plant
This week is all about Apple girding for its battle with the FBI over an order to break into a killer’s iPhone, with more amicus briefs in support of the Cupertino, Calif., company filed Thursday.
But a persistent rumor has resurfaced just in time to train the spotlight back on the tech company’s products.
According to a report in the
Silicon Valley Business Journal, Apple has leased a 96,000square-foot industrial facility in nearby Sunnyvale, about a 10minute drive from its current headquarters. (Apple is in the process of building a new campus in the area shaped like a circle, which is being overseen by design chief Jony Ive.)
Nothing more is known about Apple’s intentions for the plant, although the report immediately stirred unsubstantiated online media speculation that the lease was earmarked for Apple’s Project Titan, the oft-reported name for its car skunkworks. The Jour
nal’s report was based on loan documents filed at the Santa Clara County courthouse.
That the large factory space used to house a Pepsi bottling plant has an ironic ring, given that Steve Jobs famously hired Apple CEO John Sculley away from Pepsi with the alleged taunt, “Do you want to sell sugar water, or do you want to come with me and change the world?”
Apple has steadfastly denied it is working on an automobile and declined to comment on the report. Apple has long been dedicated to making sure its app-based platform could port over onto today’s in-dash infotainment systems. Apple CarPlay is now a staple in many car models, as is Android Auto.
“Apple has been busy leasing and buying space as it builds its main new campus, and given that they like their people to work closely together, this (Pepsi plant) could just be more office space,” says Jan Dawson, chief analyst at Jackdaw Research.
Dawson notes that any company working on a car would need a secret facility in which to test prototypes, something that a onetime bottling plant would be better suited to than an office complex. “You’d want to be away from prying eyes, and a factory would lend itself well to an industrial application,” he says.