Apple is dropping $1 billion on a huge new campus in Austin, Texas

tim cook

Apple is establishing a new campus in Austin, Texas.
The campus will initially house 5,000 employees, and Apple is going to spend $1 billion building it.
Austin was recently in the running for Amazon's second headquarters, HQ2, but was passed over.

Apple announced on Thursday that it is building a new $1 billion campus in Austin, Texas.

In a press release, Apple said the new campus will span 133 acres, and house an initial 5,000 employees, with the potential to expand to 15,000 staff.

The new site will be located less than a mile from its existing facilities and roles based at the building will include engineering, R&D, operations, finance, sales, and customer support. It will be powered by 100% renewable energy.

Apple presence in Austin dates back to 1992 and it currently employs 7,000 staff in the capital, according to Statesman. It only opened its Parmer campus in 2016, in which Apple has invested $282.5 million.

The Austin campus is part of a more general push to expand in the US. Apple also announced that over the next three years, it will be adding 1,000 employees each to its sites in Seattle, San Diego, and Culver City, along with 100 extra in Pittsburgh, New York, Boulder, Boston, and Portland, Oregon.

"Talent, creativity and tomorrow's breakthrough ideas aren't limited by region or zip code, and, with this new expansion, we’re redoubling our commitment to cultivating the high-tech sector and workforce nationwide," Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement.

Austin's mayor Steve Alder was quoted in Apple's press release welcoming the campus. "Apple has been a vital part of the Austin community for a quarter century, and we are thrilled that they are deepening their investment in our people and the city we love," he said.

Austin was recently on the shortlist for Amazon's second headquarter HQ2 expansion, but was passed over in favour of New York and Arlington, Virginia.

Apple headquarters

Apple's expansion ambitions are not entirely out of the blue, The Financial Times reported in November that Apple has been buying up land at a rate of knots over the last two years, almost tripling the amount it owns.

The news comes in the same year that Apple put the finishing touches to its $5 billion campus in Cupertino, California, informally known as the "spaceship." Apple Park is a home to 12,000 staff.

Apple said it has added 6,000 jobs to its US workforce this year and is on track to create 20,000 jobs across the country by 2023. The company currently employs 90,000 people across all 50 states. The graph shows how staff will be spread across the US in four years' time. apple