Apple's New $500B Investment Praised by Trump

Apple unveiled a $500 billion spending plan for the US on Monday that includes 20,000 new hires over the next four years, reports the Wall Street Journal. The announcement comes days after CEO Tim Cook met with President Trump, who seemed clued in to the news in advance, notes Quartz. On Friday, Trump told a group of governors that Apple planned to invest "hundreds of billions of dollars" in the US, and he thanked Cook and Apple on Truth Social soon after the announcement on Monday. "Cook continues to prove that he is 10% politician and 90% CEO," wrote Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives after the news broke, per Quartz. Details:

• Apple said it would build a factory in Houston to produce servers that support Apple Intelligence, the company's AI system. The plant is scheduled to open in 2026. The company also plans to expand manufacturing—and the training of manufacturers—elsewhere in the US.
• The company plans to hire 20,000 people in fields such as software development, silicon engineering, and AI-powered machine learning.
• Axios sees it as a big victory for Trump, who earlier this month announced a 10% tariff on products from China, where most iPhones are made.
• "We are bullish on the future of American innovation, and we're proud to build on our longstanding U.S. investments," said Cook. The company made a similar US investment of $430 billion in Trump's first term.

(More Apple stories.)