Apple on Monday announced plans to invest some $500 billion and and hire 20,000 workers in the United States over the next four years. The centerpiece of the splashy news is a future 250,000 sq. ft. factory in Texas where the iPhone maker will build AI servers and other high-end systems.
The systems, it has been reported, will be built by Foxconn in an apparent arrangement similar to those the respective companies have in other regions such as China.
Before we get too excited, however, let’s look back at similar announcements the company has made and how they have played out.
2021: “Apple announces $430 billion investment in US with 20,000 new jobs.”
2021: “Apple unveils $1B investment to build east coast hub in Research Triangle.”
Insofar as we can tell, the investments never fully materialized. And it’s difficult to say whether the hiring did either. Below is a table taken from Apple’s 10-k reports indicating the number of employees at the end of each fiscal year. The head count has climbed, of course, and does indeed match the overall growth set forth in the company’s 2018 statement.
Apple Employment, By Year
| Year | No. EmplOyees |
|---|---|
| 2018 | 132,000 |
| 2019 | 137,000 |
| 2020 | 147,000 |
| 2021 | 154,000 |
| 2022 | 164,000 |
| 2023 | 161,000 |
| 2024 | 164,000 |
But Apple doesn’t break out its US headcount in its 10-k. On its website, Apple says it has 80,000 US employees as of 2016, which represented 69% of its 116,000 overall headcount that year. Based on those percentages, it’s reasonable to be a little skeptical that of the 32,000 workers Apple has added since 2018, at least 20,000 of them are in the US, but it’s not beyond belief. The pandemic did not appear to have stopped the hiring at Apple (whether it slowed it is a different question).
Let’s hope this means great things are coming both for Apple, an American success story if ever there were one, and the domestic electronics industry.