Apple to Build $1 Billion Campus in Austin, Add Jobs Around Country
*By Carlo Versano*
Apple says it will build a $1 billion new campus in Austin, Tex. that would almost double the size of its current footprint in the city, with the room to house as many as 15,000 new jobs.
Apple ($AAPL) made the announcement in an early morning press release, in which the company also committed to adding offices with 1,000 new jobs in Seattle, San Diego, and Culver City, Calif., as well as expand its operations in Pittsburgh, Colorado, Portland, Boston, and New York in the coming years.
Apple's decision to build out its presence in Austin is a sign that the famously eccentric city in the middle of Texas is rapidly becoming a tech hub in its own right. Dell ($DVMT), Amazon ($AMZN), IBM ($IBM), and Facebook ($FB) are among the technology giants that call Austin home, and the city hosts the SXSW tech and media festival every spring.
“Their decision to expand operations in our state is a testament to the high-quality workforce and unmatched economic environment that Texas offers," Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said of Apple.
Apple's decision to announce its expansion plans by press release stood in contrast to the year-long pageantry of Amazon's HQ2 search. That expansion will create 50,000 new jobs, Amazon has said.
Apple said it is on track to create 20,000 jobs in the U.S. by 2023. Those are largely non-manufacturing jobs, which the company still keeps overseas, to the [dismay](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1038453273286664193?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) of President Trump.
An independent watchdog within the IRS reports that while taxpayer services have vastly improved, the agency is still too slow to resolve identity theft cases. And National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins says those delays are “unconscionable.” Erin M. Collins said in the report released Wednesday that overall the 2024 filing season went smoothly, though IRS delays in resolving identity theft victim assistance cases are worsening. It took nearly 19 months to resolve self-reported identity theft cases as of January, and Wednesday's report states that now it takes 22 months to resolve these cases.
Amazon.com Inc. surpassed $2 trillion in market value for the first time in afternoon trading on Wednesday. The push higher for Amazon’s stock market valuation comes a little more than a week after Nvidia hit $3 trillion and briefly became the most valuable company on Wall Street. Nvidia’s chips are used to power many AI application and its valuation has soared as a result. Amazon has also been making big investments in AI as global interest has grown in the technology. Most of the company’s focus has been on business-focused products.
Climate change doesn’t just mean more extreme weather – it also leads to billions of dollars in lost productivity, tourism, and stresses infrastructure.
