Apple makes new promise on $500 billion U.S. investment, as it retains DEI program

Apple says it will invest half a trillion dollars in the U.S. over the next four years – an amount some experts question – even as it vows to keep its diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

The Silicon Valley tech giant has promised to invest $500 billion and create 20,000 new jobs, including a new AI-controlled advanced manufacturing facility and other high-tech projects.  

But critics of the company wonder where the money will come from, noting that similar pledges were made after the inauguration of President Joe Biden four years ago. At this point, it’s unclear how much of the previously promised investment was actually made.

Others have reported the investment announcement comes at a time Apple has reinforced its commitment to often illegal diversity, equity and inclusion programs (DEI), even as other large U.S. companies has significantly curtailed or cancelled such programs.   

“As part of this package of U.S. investments, Apple and partners will open a new advanced manufacturing facility in Houston to produce servers that support Apple Intelligence, the personal intelligence system that helps users write, express themselves, and get things done,” the company said in a press release.

Additionally, it will create a manufacturing academy in Michigan to train U.S. manufacturers in advanced techniques and grow its research and development investments in the U.S. to support cutting-edge fields.

President Trump said the iPhone maker’s investment shows “faith” in the administration’s attempt to support high-technology manufacturing. 

“Apple has just announced a record 500-billion-dollar investment in the United States of America. The reason is faith in what we are doing; without witch [sic], they wouldn’t be investing ten cents,” the president posted in all caps on Truth Social, according to the Washington Times.

Expert questions

Industry experts have said that previously a $430 billion investment over five years was announced by Apple in 2021, not long after Biden tool office.

This year, 2025, overlaps that investment time period.

“It would be great to see a breakdown of that spending, but as far as I know there isn’t one available for public consumption,” wrote Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights & Strategy in Forbes. “The same applies to Apple’s January 2018 pledge to invest $350 billion in the U.S. spread across five years. I think you see the trend.”

Moorhead also said that 20,000 jobs isn’t a lot for a half a trillion-dollar investment, given that Apple said it currently supports 2.9 million jobs.

Some of the money, he feared, could be tied to chip manufacturing offshore at Taiwan Semiconductor.

“If I sound cynical about what Apple announced today, it’s just that I have long experience with these kinds of showpiece initiatives — many of which don’t live up to their hype,” added Moorhead. “It’s great that Apple is making another even bigger pledge on top of the $350 billion and $430 billion commitments it made in previous years, but we’ve also never seen any accounting that details what actually happened for those pledges.”

Other analysts have questioned where Apple will get the money to finance the scheme.

Alena Botros writing in Forbes said that UBS analyst David Vogt was skeptical in a note to investors, writing, “we believe it lacks substance.”

Botros said that Apple generates only $100 billion in cash, while the plan would require $125 billion annually in capital expenditures. She further notes that the company uses about $90 billion annually for share repurchases.

“Vogt questions where the additional money will come from, adding that he doesn’t believe Apple will slash its buybacks,” reported Fortune.

DEI

The plan could be a device to take the Trump administration’s eye off a recent shareholder vote that rejected dismantling the company’s DEI programs and stopping charitable giving to leftwing groups such as the Southern Poverty Law Center, which has labeled mainstream conservative organizations “hate groups.”

CBS News reported that other large companies such as Google, Target and Walmart are withdrawing support for DEI in the wake of court decisions questioning race-based DEI policies.

The National Center for Public Policy Research, which sponsored the proposal on the Apple shareholder ballot against the diversity policies, said that “DEI poses litigation, reputational and financial risks to companies, and therefore financial risks to their shareholders,” according to CBS.

Apple’s CEO Tim Cook tiptoed around the legal issues involved with DEI in a statement of support for the race and identity-based programs, denying that Apple employs “quotas” in its DEI programs, while admitting that there are some legal issues involved in keeping DEI as it is.

“As the legal landscape around these issues evolves, we may need to make some changes to comply, but our North Star of dignity and respect for everyone and our work to that end will never waver,” Cook said, according to the Business Standard.

Apple is especially sensitive to the charges of racism because in the past the company has tried to weaken standards that would prevent American companies, such as Apple, from importing Chinese goods that were made through forced labor.

China has been accused of exploiting its Uygur ethnic and religious minority in so-called reeducation camps that include the practice of forced labor.