Apple shines its role in economy

SAN FRANCISCO — Apple is getting more aggressive about emphasizing its role in the U.S. economy, apparently hoping to counter recurring criticism over its reliance on overseas factories.

On Wednesday, Apple for the first time released a state-by-state breakdown of where its 80,000 U.S. employees work. It also announced a $1 billion fund aimed at creating more U.S. manufacturing jobs, although it provided few details.

The strategy appears aimed at complicating efforts by President Donald Trump and other politicians to vilify Apple for using companies in China and elsewhere to assemble most of its products. Apple had no comment on political ramifications of its announcements.

CEO Tim Cook first described the fund in an interview on CNBC, but didn’t say how the fund will invest that money or who will be eligible to receive it. Apple will provide more details when it announces its first investment by the end of the month, he said. Apple’s billion-dollar investment amounts to a tiny fraction of its $257 billion in cash.

Cook also promised that Apple will hire “thousands of employees, thousands more in the future” in the U.S., although he didn’t specify how quickly that will happen. Apple’s U.S. payroll has grown roughly 40-fold since 1998, when it had 5,000 U.S. workers.

Cook also said Apple is examining ways to help more people learn the programming skills to make apps.