Apple to spend half a trillion dollars across the US over the next four years

The threat of trade tariffs from President Donald Trump has pressured Apple to invest half a trillion dollars into the United States across the next four years, with the company saying on Monday it will hire as many as 20,000 new workers.

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According to a new article by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple said on Monday that it will be spending $500 billion over the next four years in the US, and at least part of that money will be dedicated to the construction of new server manufacturing facility slated for Houston, a new supplier academy in Michigan, and additional spending being funneled to current US-based suppliers. Notably, Apple pledging this $500 billion comes only days after Apple CEO Tim Cook met with President Trump in the Oval Office.

Trump said shortly after the meeting that Cook is "investing hundreds of billions of dollars," insinuating the company wants to avoid the new tariffs Trump has threatened to implement, which include a 10% tax on items imported from China - the location of where Apple builds the majority of its iPhones and many other products. Gurman writes that Apple's pledge of a $500 billion investment across four years marks the biggest commitment Apple has made to the US to date.

"We are bullish on the future of American innovation, and we're proud to build on our long-standing US investments with this $500 billion commitment to our country's future. We'll keep working with people and companies across this country to help write an extraordinary new chapter in the history of American innovation," said Cook in a statement