San Francisco - Apple plans to create a $1 billion (R13.35 billion) fund to invest in US companies that perform advanced manufacturing, chief executive Tim Cook said on Wednesday, the iPhone maker’s latest effort to show how it is creating US jobs.
The Cupertino, California company will announce the fund’s first investment later in May, Cook said during an interview on CNBC.
Cook also said Apple plans to fund programmes that could include teaching people how to write computer code to create apps, and will release more details about the effort this summer.
The announcements were the latest in a series of disclosures to highlight how Apple, the world’s largest company by market valuation, contributes to job creation in the US. Apple came under fire from President Donald Trump because it makes most of its products in China.
In February during the company’s annual shareholder meeting, Cook said Apple spent $50 billion in 2016 with its US suppliers, which include firms like 3M and Corning.
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Cook reiterated that point during the CNBC interview, along with Apple’s claim that it has created 2 million jobs in the US, 80 000 of which are directly at Apple and the rest coming from suppliers and software developers for the company’s app ecosystem.