Apple Campus Makes Headway in Austin
More than three years after announcing plans to construct a $1 billion office in northwest Austin, American multinational technology company Apple reports that crews have almost completed phase one of the project.
“It’s been over 25 years since Apple opened its first office in Austin, and we are thrilled to be deepening our partnership with the city and people here,” an Apple spokesperson told KVUE in back in April 2021.
Expansion Announcement
Plans for the Apple expansion in Austin were first announced in 2018. At the time, reports indicated that the facility would be built nearly a mile away from its existing campus in Travis County. The new campus is currently being constructed off of Parmer Lane on the southern edge of Williamson County, at a price of $1 billion.
However, by April 2021, Apple formally announced an accelerated commitment for growth, highlighting $430 billion in U.S. investments to be made over the next five years. The expansion—a 20% increase from its original five-year goal of $350 billion in 2018—is slated to invest tens of billions of dollars into next-generation silicon development and 5G innovation, in addition to the addition of 20,000 new jobs across the country.
New Apple campus construction in northwest Austin coming together https://t.co/JpBPmYkw6H
— KVUE News (@KVUE) January 24, 2022
“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,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook at the time. “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.”
According to Apple, the company supports more than 2.7 million jobs across the country through direct employment, spending with U.S. suppliers and manufacturers, and developer jobs as well. In its planned expansion, the investments will directly involve more than 9,000 suppliers and companies large and small across all 50 states, supporting construction, silicon engineering, 5G and manufacturing, in addition to job creation.
Specifically, the company plans to invest $1 billion into the construction of a new campus and engineering hub in the Research Triangle area of North Carolina. As part of its commitment to creating at least 3,000 new jobs in machine learning, artificial intelligence, software engineering and other cutting-edge fields at the facility, Apple will also invest $110 million into infrastructure spending to the 80 North Carolina counties with the greatest need.
The additional funds are slated to go toward broadband, roads and bridges, and public schools. In the greater Raleigh-Durham area and across the state, Apple has also pledged a $100 million fund to support schools and community initiatives.
However, the expansion plans don’t end there. Other states planned for capital projects include:
During a project update regarding the Austin campus around that same time, Apple officials suggested that it expected to move employees into the facility sometime in 2022.
Austin Campus Updates
Taking place in five phases, the Austin Business Journal reports that phase one of the Austin Apple campus is nearly complete. Once finished, the campus will take up three million square feet, which includes 12 office and amenity buildings, parking structures, a central utility plant and a separate daycare building.
A six-story, 75,500-square-foot hotel and three-story conference center is also planned for the campus.
While the company was aiming to bring employees onsite sometime this year, recently, Apple announced that it would be delaying its return to offices indefinitely. The latest announcement has officials unclear of when exactly the campus will be open.
In total, the new campus is expected to bring nearly 5,000 jobs to Austin in engineering, research and development, operations, finance, sales and customer support.
