AUSTIN, TEXAS — Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) has broken ground on its new $1 billion, 3 million-square-foot office campus in Austin. The 133-acre property will initially house 5,000 employees, with the capacity to grow to 15,000. It is expected to open in 2022.
Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple is steadily growing in Austin with approximately 7,000 employees in the city — more than a 50 percent increase in the past five years alone. Plans for the campus were first announced in December 2018.
“With the construction of our new campus in Austin now underway, Apple is deepening our close bond with the city and the talented and diverse workforce that calls it home,” says CEO Tim Cook.
The company has partnered with Austin-based Bartlett Tree Experts to preserve and increase the diversity of native trees on the new campus. Additionally, the site is designed to maximize green space, with landscaping covering more than 60 percent of the project, including a 50-acre nature and wildlife preserve that will be open to the public. Like all Apple facilities, the Austin campus will run on 100 percent renewable energy, including solar power generated on site.
Apple’s Mac Pro is designed and engineered in California, and assembled in Austin, Texas.
The groundbreaking coincides with the company’s announcement that it is preparing to ship its all-new Mac Pro to customers starting in December from a nearby production facility. Apple and its manufacturing partners invested more than $200 million in the Mac Pro facility in Austin. The computer, 15,000 times faster than the original Mac, is designed and engineered in California before being assembled in Austin. President Donald Trump is scheduled to tour the manufacturing plant with Cook today.
Apple’s growth in Austin is part of the company’s nationwide expansion unveiled in January 2018 to increase its investment in manufacturing, engineering and other jobs across the United States. The company claims it is on track to contribute $350 billion to the U.S. economy by 2023 and hire an additional 20,000 employees.
Apple supports 2.4 million jobs across the country, including 450,000 manufacturing and operations jobs and 90,000 direct employees. The company’s stock price closed at $266.29 per share on Tuesday, Nov. 19, up from $176.98 one year ago.
— Kristin Hiller