Apple to Build 1 MSF Campus in North Carolina

Apple CEO Tim Cook at the September 2020 keynote. Image courtesy of Apple

Apple plans to invest $1 billion in North Carolina and build a new campus at the state’s Research Triangle Park (RTP) as the iPhone maker continues to boost its real estate footprint across the U.S.

The company expects its future campus and engineering center to create at least 3,000 new jobs in fields such as machine learning, artificial intelligence and software engineering, Apple announced today. The new jobs are expected to fetch an average annual salary of $187,000, according to a statement by Wake County Economic Development.

READ ALSO: Google Commits $250M to New York Expansion

The newly announced facility will span more than 1 million square feet and will run on 100 percent renewable energy. Apple’s campus will be located on the Wake County side of RTP, the largest research park in the U.S., and will sit on land straddling North Carolina Highway 540 near Cary and Morrisville, The News & Observer reported.

The 7,000-acre park nearby Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill is home to hundreds of tenants, including the U.S. commercial headquarters of GlaxoSmithKline and a large Cisco Systems campus.

Taking more space

Apple’s move in the Tar Heel state forms part of a more than $430 billion planned investment across the U.S., which is slated to add 20,000 jobs over the next 5 years and will include tens of billions of dollars for technology development.

Apple’s new Austin campus. Image courtesy of Apple

The Cupertino, Calif.-based firm is building a $1 billion campus in northern Austin, which is expected to welcome its first employees next year. The company broke ground on the 33-acre facility in 2019.

In California, Apple expects to grow its teams in San Diego and Culver City to more than 5,000 and 3,000 employees, respectively, by 2026. The Culver City campus will be expanded to house the new workers.

Apple also recently opened a LEED Platinum-certified office space in Seattle’s South Lake Union area, accommodating 1,000 local employees, a workforce that is poised to at least double in size. In 2019, Apple announced it had leased two 12-story buildings in the neighborhood at 333 Dexter Ave. N.

The company, which has a $2.3 trillion market cap, is also beefing up its workforce in Boston; Boulder, Colo.; Miami; New York; Pittsburgh; and Portland, Ore. In addition, Apple is currently designing a new, 400,000-square-foot data center in Waukee, Iowa.

Rising tech hub

North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, who gathered with other state leaders today to announce Apple’s investment, noted that the state has attracted 10 companies that have pledged to add thousands of jobs in just the last two months.

These firms include FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies and Abzena Holdings, which have decided to build biopharmaceutical plants in Wake County and Lee County, respectively. In early February, Gilead Sciences Inc. chose the Research Triangle region for a large business services and information technology hub that will bring 275 jobs.

Apple said its investments will ultimately generate more than $1.5 billion in economic benefits for the state. The company added that it will contribute more than $110 million in infrastructure spending in 80 North Carolina counties and will create a $100 million fund to support schools and community initiatives in the Raleigh-Durham area and across the state.

The tech behemoth expects to begin hiring immediately and will lease local office space for the new workers until the future campus is complete, according to an account by ABC11. Apple’s presence will add to a growing tech ecosystem in Wake County that now hosts nearly 4,000 technology firms including IBM, Red Hat, Lenovo, SAS and Epic Games.