Apple will invest $500 billion to hire 20,000 workers in the United States

Apple has announced it will invest $500 billion in the United States over the next four years and hire 20,000 new employees.

Apple said Monday that the 20,000 new jobs will be mainly in research and development, chip engineering and artificial intelligence.

In addition, the company will establish an academy in Detroit to help small manufacturing companies.

At the same time, Apple also doubled the size of its Made in America fund to $10 billion.

The $500 billion investment plan, along with 20,000 new jobs over the next four years, is Apple's biggest commitment to the U.S. market to date.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement: "We believe in the future of American innovation and are proud to further deepen our long-term commitment to the United States with this $500 billion investment. We will continue to partner with talent and businesses across the country to write an extraordinary new chapter in the history of American innovation."

The news comes just days after US President Donald Trump met with Cook at the White House.

After the meeting, Mr. Trump suggested that Apple was investing in the United States because it did not want to pay American tariffs on Chinese goods. He had threatened to impose an additional 10 percent tariff on imports from China, where Apple makes the vast majority of its phones and other products.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said Apple made the investment decision because it "has confidence in our policies." However, Apple did not say whether it had started making the investment long before Trump's victory.

During Trump's first term, Cook successfully persuaded Trump to waive tariffs on iphones on the grounds that they would benefit competitors such as South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. In addition, Apple has repeatedly announced investments in the United States during Trump's first term, and has credited him with the production of the Mac Pro in Texas, even though the company has manufactured the product locally since 2013.

In exchange, Apple was able to maintain high profit margins during Trump's first term and avoid steep price increases due to tariffs.

Now, with Trump once again in office and plans to push American companies to produce locally to avoid import tariffs, Apple is taking a similar tack by making strategic investments to meet Trump's policy goals.