Apple CEO Tim Cook cited President Donald Trump’s tax reform package as a driver behind the tech giant’s plans for a massive $350 billion investment in the U.S. Economy.
Apple announced on Tuesday that it will repatriate the vast majority of its $250 billion overseas cash back to the United States and invest the funds into the American economy. The company plans to add 20,000 jobs, build a new campus in a U.S. city and invest in the thriving app economy created through its iOS marketplace.
The massive cash repatriation is possible because of a provision in Trump’s tax bill that allows companies with cash from overseas profits to bring the money home at a lower tax rate. Apple will pay an estimated $38 billion in taxes as a result.
“I do believe the corporate tax side will result in job creation and a faster-growing economy,” Cook told ABC. “There are large parts of this that are a result of the tax reform, and there’s large parts of this that we would have done in any situation.”
Trump took to Twitter on Wednesday to celebrate the announcement.
Apple’s cash repatriation met an estimate by Goldman Sachs regarding the amount of cash that would be brought back to the United States by all S&P 500 companies as a result of tax reform.
Taking into account all US-based companies, $2.5 trillion in untaxed cash is sitting overseas, according to Citigroup.
“What we’ve been advocating for a while is the ability to bring that back without a huge penalty,” Cook said regarding repatriation. “We’ve always felt comfortable with paying a lot in taxes, just not a huge, huge amount.”
Apple currently hires 84,000 people in the U.S. The company says it supports a total of 2 million jobs at home. Every Apple product has some American-made parts that come from its 9,000 vendors in all 50 states.
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