CNBC
Apple CEO Tim Cook announced Wednesday that the company plans to invest $1 billon to help develop advanced manufacturing capabilities in the U.S.
"We asked ourselves, 'How can we get more people to do advanced manufacturing in the United States?," Cook said in an appearance on CNBC's Mad Money show. "And I'm proud to tell you that we're creating an advanced manufacturing fund. We're initially putting $1 billion in the fund."
He noted that it comes from the company's U.S. assets rather than the billions it has offshore.
That's another whole topic. But yeah, we're really proud to do it. And by doing that, we can be the ripple in the pond. Because 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. And we'll be announcing the first investment from this fund later in the month of May.
Why it matters: President Trump has been calling for Apple and other companies to do more manufacturing in the U.S. This is one way for Apple to show it is committed to U.S. jobs in manufacturing
Cook also called for tax reform and an easier way for global companies to bring back money to the U.S.
I think that repatriation, I actually think comprehensive tax reform is so important to this economy. If you think about it, what many, many companies now sell globally. If you sell globally, you earn money globally. If you earn money globally, you don't – you can't bring it back into the United States unless you pay 35% plus your state tax. And you look at this and you go, "This is kind of bizarre." You want people to use this money in the United States to invest more. We are in a good position, but an unusual one. Our good position is we can borrow. And so to invest in the United States, we have to borrow. This doesn't make sense on a broad basis, and so I think the administration you saw that they're really getting this, and want to bring this back. And I hope that that comes to pass.