Apple to invest in US jobs with a tiny fraction of its profit horde

AP/Bloomberg:

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, showing that more than half of them are located outside Silicon Valley. 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 manufacturing fund an interview on CNBC, but didn't say how the money will be disbursed 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 initial billion-dollar investment amounts to a tiny fraction of its $257 billion in cash.
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Just to show how small a commitment this is for apple, Samsung is investing over a billion at one facility in Austin, Texas in addition to other investments in the US.  Considering how profitable Apple has been with its products in this country, you would think Cook and Apple could do better.  That South Korean competitor is doing more should be an embarrassment.