From founder Steve Jobs to Business Executive Tim Cook, Apple has brought us more and more surprises. Recently, Cook announced a record-breaking investment in the United States. With Apple promising to invest over $500 billion, the technology and business landscape is shifting.
With the $500 billion allotted over the next four years, Cook plans to implement a factory solely to manufacture the new Apple Intelligence. Along with this, he arranged a workforce increase by opening up 20,000 job positions. As seen in Apple’s February 2025 article, Cook also plans to double the advanced manufacturing fund, which promotes skills development, to over $10 billion. Finally, Apple wants to inspire upcoming engineers by implementing a nationwide program for small to medium-sized businesses. This program will teach people nationwide about AI, smart manufacturing techniques, project management, and more.

“For Edison High School students, I think that there are going to be a lot more opportunities in engineering, particularly what they call silicon engineering,” said Business teacher Ms. Lynne Tierney. “Not so much in the data input programming section, but more the engineering behind it.”
As opportunities expand nationwide, even Edison High School students can explore such engineering fields. Many fields that students couldn’t explore are now open to the public, allowing students to gain experience in silicon engineering and artificial intelligence.
“Investments like this will open students to more computer engineering and science opportunities in their future,” said Gabrielle Dharmawan ‘25. “It won’t reduce any other job opportunities in other fields, but students might be more inclined to go into a field in engineering because of the increased opportunities.”
Due to the increased number of opportunities, more chances are given to students to go into the field of engineering. This investment not only helps people pursue their interests but also provides benefits for the country as a whole.
“I believe any investment by a company in the United States will have some kind of a benefit to our country and hopefully trickle down to the local communities,” said Business teacher Mr. Carl Morelli. “Schools today can’t depend on just federal, state, or local funding for their educational expenses. Instead, they should start going after companies to partner with to enhance their curricula and give students more ‘real world’ experiences.”
Despite this potential, there are bound to be some negatives to investing in the United States.
“A process called creative destruction will always benefit one group as it takes away from another. People interested in other career paths will lose opportunities, and people focused on the data management side of engineering will lose employment,” said Tierney.
These losses seem to be a small price to pay for the potential to boost the United States’ economy and ranking in terms of engineering.
“Hopefully, these new investments by companies to develop and manufacture products will allow the United States to once again be the leader in many industries, including engineering and technology,” said Morelli.

Ever since the early 90s, the United States has fallen behind in terms of technology and engineering to countries like China and Japan. With investments like Apple’s, the United States has a significant chance to enter the global scene in such industries once again.
“The United States is already shifting towards an engineering-based country, and this investment only adds to this,” said Dharmawan.
Although Apple’s investment opens up countless job opportunities, it focuses primarily on computer engineering and technology. This makes the United States more inclined to shift to a national industry focused on computer engineering rather than other fields of work. As Apple, Microsoft, and other tech companies spread their reach throughout the nation, there is a high chance that the United States will become even more influenced and dependent on technology.