Apple plans to ramp up its US hiring and investments. On Monday, the company said it will hire around 20,000 workers and spend over $500 billion in the US over the next four years.In 2021, several months after former President Biden took office, Apple said it would invest $430 billion domestically over the following five years. Bloomberg notes today's announcement marks an added $39 billion in spending and an extra 1,000 jobs annually over its previous numbers.The newly announced package will include a new manufacturing facility in Houston to build servers for Apple Intelligence, which has increasingly become central to the company's plans and advertising campaigns. The Private Cloud Compute servers that handle Apple Intelligence's more complex server-AI queries use Apple M-series chips, which are still produced in Taiwan.Apple said most of the 20,000 new jobs will focus on R&D, AI and machine learning, silicon engineering and software development. The company will also expand its data center capacity in North Carolina, Iowa, Oregon, Arizona and Nevada to help meet Apple Intelligence's growing backend needs.The company will also open an Apple Manufacturing Academy in Detroit, where its engineers will work alongside "experts from top universities such as Michigan State" to consult with small and medium-sized businesses on implementing AI and smart manufacturing techniques. Apple will also offer free in-person and online skills development courses. It already runs a Developer Academy in the Motor City.The announcement follows a meeting between Tim Cook and President Donald Trump last week at the White House. Trump implied that Apple was making additional investments to avoid tariffs due to the iPhone maker's heavy reliance on manufacturing in China. "They don't want to be in the tariffs," Trump said after the meeting.Apple hasn't said whether investments are related to tariffs, instead framing them as a sign of confidence in the nation's ability to innovate. "We are bullish on the future of American innovation, and we're proud to build on our long-standing US investments with this $500 billion commitment to our country's future," Cook said in a press release.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/apple-plans-to-invest-500-billion-in-the-us-over-the-next-four-years-181217017.html?src=rss