At the White House on Wednesday, Apple’s CEO presented President Donald Trump with a gift to commemorate the announcement of the Apple American Manufacturing Program.
The gift is an inscribed piece of glass with an Apple logo hollowed out in the center. The glass, which came “off the Corning line,” according to Cook, features Tim Cook’s signature and sits in a base that Cook said is “24-karat gold.” The gift was designed by a former U.S. Marine corporal who is now an Apple employee, and is a “unique unit of one.”
Cook was at the White House to announce “a new $100 billion commitment to America,” according to an Apple press release. The new investment comes after Apple announced in February a $500 billion investment in the U.S.—that’s all the company’s U.S. spending, not just manufacturing—over the next four years.
The Apple American Manufacturing Program will “accelerate manufacturing in the U.S.” with several partners, including Broadcom, Corning, Coherent, Texas Instruments, and Samsung. With these partnerships, Apple is on track to produce more than 19 billion chips for its products in 2025. Trump announced a 100 percent tariff on semiconductor imports, but any company that has made a commitment to build and invest in the United States is exempt from the surcharge.
Apple has several facilities under construction or expansion, including a Houston factory for Apple servers, a data center in North Carolina, and a second Apple campus in Austin.
