On Friday, Apple Inc. (APPL) announced plans to build a new $304 million campus in Austin. The investment will bring 3,600 new jobs over the next 10 years.
The company currently has a presence in the Texas city, already employing thousands of workers who review customer complaints and offer support. With the new site, it double the current workforce in Austin. The new jobs will include additional ones in customer support, sales and accounting, according to Reuters.
Apple spokesman Steve Dowling said, “Our operations in Austin has grown dramatically over the past decade from less than 1,000 in 2004 to more than 3,500 today.”
The company said this project is one of many from a bidding process that had included additional venues from around the country.
The announcement for the new facility came from Texas Governor Rick Perry. In a press release, Perry said, “Apple is known for its bold innovation and game-changing designs, and the expansion of their Austin facility adds to the growing list of visionary high-tech companies that have found that Texas’ economic climate is a perfect fit for their future, thanks to our low taxes, reasonable and predictable regulations, fair legal system and skilled workforce. Investments like this further Texas’ potential to become the nation’s next high-tech hub.”
From the state, Apple will receive a state-funded $21 million investment from the Enterprise Fund know as TEF, which had been created by the Texas Legislature in 2003 to attract companies and job growth, according to CBS. This will come over a 10-year period and additional incentives by the city of Austin and Travis County may also come through for the project.
According to Perry’s release on Friday, when the Apple project completed, it will be represent one of the largest TEF projects in the fund’s history, and will sit toward the top for capital investments given to a TEF recipient.
But you can’t help but ask, why does Apple need $21 million from Texas to build the site? Don’t they have loads of cash, so much so, they don’t know what to do with it?
