Apple putting major campus in Research Triangle Park, hiring 3,000
Apple is bringing at least 3,000 jobs to a new campus in the Research Triangle Park.
The campus, the largest Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) presence on the East Coast, will be on 281 acres the company controls in RTP. The campus and engineering hub will focus on machine learning, artificial intelligence and software engineering, among others.
Apple is planning to pay average annual wages of at least $187,000 starting in 2023. And, eventually, the firm’s RTP operation will span 1 million square feet, officials said. The plan is to invest $1 billion over 10 years.
The primary competition, according to state officials, was Ohio.
In return, North Carolina has approved a “transformative” incentives deal worth $845.8 million to the company over 39 years.
The news was disclosed early Monday at a specially-called meeting of the state's Economic Investment Committee.
The move also connects Apple’s top leaders to a market that helped forge their careers before they landed in Silicon Valley.
Apple CEO Tim Cook received his MBA from Duke University and worked for IBM (NYSE: IBM) for years in Research Triangle Park. Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams grew up in Raleigh and graduated from Sanderson High School and N.C. State University. He also received his MBA from Duke.
“As a North Carolina native, I’m thrilled Apple is expanding and creating new long-term job opportunities in the community I grew up in," Williams said. "We’re proud that this new investment will also be supporting education and critical infrastructure projects across the state. Apple has been a part of North Carolina for nearly two decades, and we’re looking forward to continuing to grow and a bright future ahead.”
Jeff Williams, chief operating officer of Apple, grew up in Raleigh.
Apple spokeswoman Rachel Tulley said hiring for the project starts immediately. While no groundbreaking has yet been scheduled for the RTP site, “We’ll be leasing space,” she said.
The possibility of Apple entering the Triangle has been whispered for years. And that expectation heightened in December 2018 when a company tied to Apple purchased 281 acres in RTP near the intersection of Davis Drive and Interstate 540. The land was purchased by Acute Investments LLC, which has ties with Apple. Acute Investments paid nearly $50 million for the property.
Sources at the time confirmed Apple officials were negotiating potential incentives with the state, and many thought a big announcement – to the tune of 3,000 jobs – was looming.
At the time, sources told TBJ that when Apple instead announced plans to put a $1 billion investment in Austin, Texas, adding an additional 5,000 jobs at a 133-acre campus, that officials in the Tar Heel State were taken by surprise. RTP had been on the short list for that site and, at the time, sources said politics may have played a role in Apple's decision to invest in the Lone Star State.
Apple, in its announcement, said that the new campus would be part of a $1 billion investment in North Carolina. The company will also commit $100 million to support education and community initiatives across the state, and another $110 million to the state’s utility fund for infrastructure for the 80 North Carolina counties with the greatest need.
The North Carolina announcement is part of an overall growth plan to add 20,000 jobs, the company said Monday.
“At this moment of recovery and rebuilding, Apple is doubling down on our commitment to U.S. innovation and manufacturing with a generational investment reaching communities across all 50 states,” Cook said.
"We’re creating jobs in cutting-edge fields – from 5G to silicon engineering to artificial intelligence – investing in the next generation of innovative new businesses, and in all our work, building toward a greener and more equitable future," he said.
The move is another giant job win for the region. Google announced in March that it would put a 1,000-job engineering hub in Durham. No state incentives were involved in attracting that project. And on the same day in March, Fujifilm Diosynth announced it would invest $2 billion in a large-scale cell production facility in Holly Springs, adding 725 jobs to the area by 2028. That project was approved for up to $26 million in state incentives.