Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Apple commits $430B in US investments over five years

apple.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 265 posts

Re: Apple commits $430B in US investments over five years

#121

Post by jdmoreira »

anon_tor_12345 wrote: post #70
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> hate the way Apple phrases their business investments like they're performing some great charitable act Why do you think domestic investment is so economically useless that it must be a charitable act? Cupertino is announcing spend. Spending here is better for people here, ceteris paribus , than spending there. If they announced $430bn in new Southeast Asian contracts, there would be a twin top comment lamenting Ap…

>Why do you think domestic investment is so economically useless that it must be a charitable act? that's not what op (the person you're responding to) is saying at all. they're simply saying that apple disguises its infrastructure spending as charity and that that's off-putting. in fact it's not charity and furthers their own goals. it'd be like me claiming to be a philanthropist because i had to a build a road conn…

It could never be charitable because Apple is a publicly traded company and investors want returns.

People talk about companies the same way a hunter-gatherer applies animism to trees for example. Companies are not people, they can’t be cynic nor greedy they just are what they were created to be. Profit machines.

Apple is extremely good at being. High returns on invested capital, huge moat, etc...

Re: Apple commits $430B in US investments over five years

#122

Post by zitterbewegung »

Traster wrote: post #33

I kind of hate the way Apple phrases their business investments like they're performing some great charitable act. Also, I'll wait for an external audit of whether they're paying all the relevant local taxes before I would consider giving them credit for these "investments" in local infrastructure they're making.

How many people did Apple have to hire to make the new Apple campus? You can directly see the impact that had. Compare that to Amazon or Foxconn. At least they actually seem to hold a large majority of their promise.

Re: Apple commits $430B in US investments over five years

#123

Post by fguerraz »

Also, with many trillion dollars of money printed recently vs 0 CNY, it is very likely that the value of the USD will slide significantly compared to RMB.

It is not that far-fetched to think that in a not so distant future China consider the USA (and Europe) as sources of cheap manufacturing.

Re: Apple commits $430B in US investments over five years

#124

Post by cromka »

dev_tty01 wrote: post #107
Traster wrote: post #33

I kind of hate the way Apple phrases their business investments like they're performing some great charitable act. Also, I'll wait for an external audit of whether they're paying all the relevant local taxes before I would consider giving them credit for these "investments" in local infrastructure they're making.

Please indicate the phrases that imply a "great charitable act." I see normal, straight-forward corporate press release speak. If Intel or Google were making a similar announcement it would sound quite like this one. They are making significant investment. Would you "give them credit" if they were not making the investments?

I read it and also don't see any notion of charity. Op is really making it sound like something it clearly isn't.

Re: Apple commits $430B in US investments over five years

#125

Post by ojbyrne »

plater wrote: post #100
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> apple disguises its infrastructure spending as charity Except it doesn't. It uses the word "investment" 17 times in the announcement. If someone reads this as a charity pitch they're doing mental gymnastics. Apple is not even doing the whole "Made in the USA" schtick, where companies imply they're taking patriotic pain for the good of the country. This is fully pitched as a competitive play. An investment to yield…

To continue as a company they have to invest just like any other company. As Apple is so big, of course the investments they make are big. But not necessarily bigger than what any other company invests in percent of revenue or profit. This announcement makes it sound like it's something amazingly special they do. But in fact, any company throughout history has invested a certain percentage of their revenue, just like…

And pretty well any company throughout history has made sure the public knows about its investment.

Re: Apple commits $430B in US investments over five years

#126

Post by fullshark »

Traster wrote: post #33

I kind of hate the way Apple phrases their business investments like they're performing some great charitable act. Also, I'll wait for an external audit of whether they're paying all the relevant local taxes before I would consider giving them credit for these "investments" in local infrastructure they're making.

Well that's the reality of our economy in 2021. A tech behemoth coming to your town and adding jobs + the human capital + tax base that comes with it can be transformative, and there's few other options for localized economic growth sadly.

Re: Apple commits $430B in US investments over five years

#127

Post by jrwoodruff »

anon_tor_12345 wrote: post #72
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> GP never implied that it was "useless" at all The announcement uses the word investment 17 times. Reading that as a charity pitch requires a few logical leaps. Companies announce foreign direct investment all the time. Nobody thinks they're trying to look like a charity.

the subtitle of the article is >The accelerated commitment will fund a new North Carolina campus and *job-creating investments* in innovative fields like silicon engineering and 5G technology other pull quotes from the article >Apple is doubling down on our commitment to US innovation and manufacturing with a generational investment reaching *communities across all 50 states* >Apple is the largest taxpayer in the US…

Not an article, a press release from Apple. Of course their PR team is going to spin it as positive as possible, that's their job. Used to be, reporters would pick this up and do their best to take the spin off, do a few interviews and provide additional context.

Re: Apple commits $430B in US investments over five years

#128

Post by sam0x17 »

Announcing a new multi-billion dollar campus during a pandemic strikes me as so fucking out of touch, and goes against the direction the industry was already going pre-pandemic. IMO at this point they should just fold and start transitioning to permanent work from home like the vast majority of startups and tech companies. This terrifies FANG because then they will have a vacant campus and whoever commissioned it will look pretty dumb. Dumber is spending multi-billion dollars on a campus when you could work from home.

Re: Apple commits $430B in US investments over five years

#129

Post by gumby »

plater wrote: post #100
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> apple disguises its infrastructure spending as charity Except it doesn't. It uses the word "investment" 17 times in the announcement. If someone reads this as a charity pitch they're doing mental gymnastics. Apple is not even doing the whole "Made in the USA" schtick, where companies imply they're taking patriotic pain for the good of the country. This is fully pitched as a competitive play. An investment to yield…

To continue as a company they have to invest just like any other company. As Apple is so big, of course the investments they make are big. But not necessarily bigger than what any other company invests in percent of revenue or profit. This announcement makes it sound like it's something amazingly special they do. But in fact, any company throughout history has invested a certain percentage of their revenue, just like…

It's a press release. What else would you expect?

They aren't claiming to be investing more or less than anyone else. They are simply advertising their plans.

I think Apple's "amazing" infomercials are over the top, but this press release seems anodyne.

Re: Apple commits $430B in US investments over five years

#130

Post by alexfromapex »

Traster wrote: post #33

I kind of hate the way Apple phrases their business investments like they're performing some great charitable act. Also, I'll wait for an external audit of whether they're paying all the relevant local taxes before I would consider giving them credit for these "investments" in local infrastructure they're making.

I don’t like how the local government is courting these businesses. It just reeks of corruption when they’re getting special tax breaks and treatment.
Post reply on HN