Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) has announced that it will be investing $1 billion in manufacturing its products in the United States. Apple CEO Tim Cook made the announcement in an interview with CNBC’s Jim Cramer. The money will be put into a US advanced manufacturing fund.
Apple has apparently already chosen the company in which it will invest, but won’t announce that just yet. Cook said Apple will be announcing the first investment from the fund later this month. Cook also said Apple plans to fund programs that could include teaching people how to write computer code to create apps.
Apple hopes that its $1 billion investment will expedite job creation and growth. Cook explained, “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.” Cook also believes a company should give back and should have values because a company is a collection of people. Cook said, “We give back through our work in the environment, in running the company on renewable energy. We give back in job creation.”
Apple claims that current US tax policy prevents it from repatriating a majority of its overseas cash. Cook has personally attacked the current tax code many times over the last few years. Cook believes comprehensive tax reform is very important to the economy and the Trump Administration has promised to help corporations repatriate overseas earnings. The iPhone maker currently has a roughly $256 billion cash hoard.
In the second quarter, Apple reported results that were slightly under what Wall Street expected. The company reported earnings of $2.10 per share on revenue of $52.9 billion. Wall Street expected earnings of $2.02 per share on revenue of roughly $53 billion.
The company reported selling 50.8 million iPhones in the quarter, lowers than analysts’ expectation of 51.4 million iPhones sold. Apple earned $7 billion in revenue from services, nearly $1 billion more than in the second quarter of last year.
Apple shares hit a 52-week high this afternoon before trading ended. In the past year, Apple shares are up more than 50 percent. The company’s market cap is now above $750 billion.
