Apple Plans to Create an East Coast Hub

Written By Monica Savaglia

Posted April 27, 2021

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) announced that it will be spending over $1 billion on a new campus in the Raleigh, North Carolina, area. This new campus is expected to employ 3,000 people who work in the technology industry in areas like software engineering and machine learning. This move from Apple will bring new job opportunities to North Carolina and the east coast. It will attract tech workers in the area and others who are looking to move out of other major cities searching for a new environment and work. 

As you probably know, Apple has been a major player in the technology industry. Its headquarters is in Cupertino, California, which is where most of its engineering has taken place over the years. The plans for a North Carolina hub are just the continuation of Apple’s plans to spread its brand throughout the U.S. The company’s $1 billion campus in Austin, Texas, is expected to open in the next year. This means Apple will have hubs on the east coast, west coast, and in the south of the U.S. 

Apple has realized it has an entire country where it can make its mark — not just in California. Not to mention the opportunity to find new talent and give opportunities to people throughout the country. A new campus in North Carolina will be located in what’s known as North Carolina’s Research Triangle area, which gets its name from the collection of North Carolina State University, Duke University, and the University of North Carolina. Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, and COO, Jeff Williams, are very familiar with the this area, as both received MBAs from Duke University. Apple’s senior vice president, Eddy Cue, also graduated from Duke. 

So now knowing that a majority of Apple’s top management are alumni from a North Carolina university, it makes a lot more sense as to how and why Apple picked North Carolina as its future east coast hub. The area is familiar to the top management. They understand that it could be a great area to recruit top talent that could move the company forward into new technologies and products. In a statement, COO Jeff Williams said:

As a North Carolina native, I’m thrilled Apple is expanding and creating new long-term job opportunities in the community I grew up in.

Apple’s move to expand throughout the country comes at a time when a lot of major Silicon Valley technology companies are expanding outside of the area and even out of California. The Silicon Valley area has high housing prices and cost of living, which is a huge con for a lot of tech talent considering job opportunities at these types of companies. It’s a big decision to move, but it’s an even bigger decision when you’re moving to a state with a high cost of living and high house prices. 

One of those California-based tech companies is Oracle (NYSE: ORCL), which announced its plans last year for moving its headquarters to Austin, Texas. And Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) recently announced that it’s spending $1 billion on a new campus in New York City. After a year of most of its employees working remotely because of the coronavirus pandemic, these companies had time to reevaluate their plans for the future. 

Apple plans to establish a $100 million fund to support schools and community initiatives in the Raleigh-Durham area and across the state, in addition to a $110 million infrastructure investment that will go toward broadband, roads, bridges, and public schools in the 80 North Carolina counties with the greatest need. Dr. John Connaughton from UNC Charlotte’s Belk College of Business had this to say about how Apple’s plans will have on North Carolina’s economy, saying:

By 2029, Apple’s investment and job creation is expected to generate at least $1.5 billion annually for the state of North Carolina. 

Apple’s North Carolina campus is going to have a huge impact on North Carolina, its economy, and its people. This is just part of the greater initiative from the tech company on investing in the U.S. to help with rebuilding the U.S. economy after being hit badly from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. The new North Carolina campus is just part of the more than $430 billion Apple’s investing in the U.S., which is expected to add 20,000 new jobs nationwide in the next five years.

Apple CEO, Tim Cook in a statement about its efforts to invest in the U.S. said:

At this moment of recovery and rebuilding, Apple is doubling down on our commitment to U.S. innovation and manufacturing with a generational investment reaching communities across all 50 states. We’re creating jobs in cutting-edge fields — from 5G to silicon engineering to artificial intelligence — investing in the next generation of innovative new businesses, and in all our work, building toward a greener and more equitable future.

Apple is expected to report on its second-quarter 2021 earnings results on April 28. Some analysts are expecting Apple to reveal earnings that crush estimates and put the company on track to reach new highs. 

Until next time,

Monica Savaglia Signature Park Avenue Digest

Monica Savaglia

Monica Savaglia is Wealth Daily’s IPO specialist. With passion and knowledge, she wants to open up the world of IPOs and their long-term potential to everyday investors. She does this through her newsletter IPO Authority, a one-stop resource for everything IPO. She also contributes regularly to the Wealth Daily e-letter. To learn more about Monica, click here.

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