Apple CEO Tim Cook has revealed that his company has set up a massive $1 Billion fund in a bid to promote advanced manufacturing jobs in the United States. Cook revealed the fact while speaking with the CNBC.
Apple’s relationship with advanced hardware manufacturing goes way back. For instance, the company has invested in U.S. hardware production earlier as well with a Mac facility in Texas. The company also released a Made in USA Mac Pro in 2013.
Meanwhile, Apple started working on this particular initiative before the US elections. We mention this because of the way President Trump gets all excited about the idea of stuff being built in the US. We don’t exactly know how the fund will chose where it invests in or the nature of those investments but Cook said that it will reveal more details near the end of the month.
While we are not sure what form this will take, it could be that Apple is planning to train some workers in advanced manufacturing. US is already facing a shortage of skilled and highly skilled production positions and the new administrations isn’t exactly too keen for immigrants to come in and do the work, right? That is where Apple’s new fund could step in and bridge the gap.
Cook said that Apple had discussed the fund with just one other company, which was likely to receive aid from it. On how Apple was hoping the fund could change things for the better, he said:
By doing that, we can be the ripple in the pond. Because if we can create many manufacturing jobs around, those manufacturing jobs create more jobs around them because you have a service industry that builds up around them.
A lot of people ask me, ‘Do you think it’s a company’s job to create jobs?’ and my response is [that] a company should have values because a company is a collection of people. And people should have values, so by extension, a company should. And one of the things you do is give back.
