To make higher profit margins, Apple, like many other companies, outsourced a lot of its manufacturing to companies outside of the US. This, in turn, allowed countries such as China to grow due to the massive investments foreign companies are making. Now, it looks like Apple wants to make an investment back home in the US, according to President Donald Trump.
Speaking on the eve of his inauguration, Trump claims to have spoken with Apple CEO Tim Cook, who told him that the company plans to make a “massive investment” in the US. It is unclear what this massive investment could be, but presumably, it could involve making more products locally or moving more of its services back home.
This isn’t the first time Trump and Cook have worked together. Back in 2019, during Trump’s first term as President of the United States, Cook was a member of the American Workforce Policy Advisory Board. Cook has also personally donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund following Trump’s win for a second term as the President.
Even companies like Google, OpenAI, Uber, Meta, and Amazon have made similar donations. This has raised some eyebrows as well as attracted the attention of US lawmakers who recently demanded an answer about these donations.
Companies like Apple have an incentive to be on Trump’s good side. This is because Trump has economic plans focusing on protecting the US economy. This involves tariffs on goods imported from countries like China. Currying favor with Trump could allow Apple to receive special favors or exemptions.
Other investments
Apple isn’t alone in trying to bring more jobs back to the US. Even other non-US-based companies have taken the knee in this regard. TSMC is one of those companies. The company, which is the world’s largest chip maker, used to operate in Taiwan and China primarily. In recent years, it started to bring some of its operations to the US.
Japan-based SoftBank is also another company that is making considerable investments in the US. The company promised a $100 billion investment that it claims will create 100,000 jobs. DAMAC, a property development company from the UAE, also offered a $20 billion commitment to build data centers in the US.
That being said, it’s hard to blame these companies for trying to cozy up to Trump. As President, Trump wields immense power and influence that could affect the way these companies operate in the US. During Trump’s first term, the US government announced that it was considering banning TikTok.
This almost went through over the weekend, where TikTok took its services offline before it was restored following Trump’s intervention.
