In Harrodsburg, Kentucky, where they make the cover glass for your iPhone. While I was down there, we spent a lot more time with Tim Cook getting into everything that's been going on with Apple. Take a look. Well, Tim, we're in downtown Harrodsburg. You talked about the ripple effect. Is this it?
This is it. It really makes my heart sing to see a town that is doing so well, that's thriving off of Corning. And our relationship with Corning is at the root of that. And so it feels fantastic.
Now, there are other towns, of course, that didn't get blessed by two companies that care as much as you and Corning. The atmosphere is very different as well.
We can't be everywhere. I wish we could. But we are putting 600 billion to work in the next four years. And so it is an extraordinary commitment. And there's 79 factories across the US that will benefit from this.
But don't you think you'd have to put up ten times that if you're just to be able to say, look, you got to put the money to work. You promised the president you're going to put it to work.
Yes, we are putting it to work.
And but 2.5 billion is a drop in the bucket of what you have to do.
Two and a half is just one of those 79. Okay. And so one of the 79. And so it's a great start and a very important one because the glass is something you interface with all the time right on your phone. And we couldn't be prouder of the relationship that we've built up over what is now since the first iPhone in 2007.
Now, when you speak about the ripple effect, it's not just what it does with towns. I imagine that there will be companies, foreign companies that will say, okay, I now have to put a factory there because Apple's there and they're building a supply chain and I can be part of it.
That's right. That's the ripple effect. If we come, there will be more companies coming. It's a domino effect kind of thing.
It's better than anything the government can do, isn't it? I mean, it's.
Enterprise versus government.
I think the government has a role in terms of the regulation kind of role and setting the leadership which the president has clearly done. He's really stated his objective to get more and more manufacturing into the United States. And so I think there's a role for each party.
I wanted to just say that the one thing that seems to be left out, president wants to be able to have everything built here, but you have to have great education. A town like this is going to have to up its game. But that's not being you're not responsible for that.
Well, what we can do is bring the manufacturing academy in Detroit to small and medium sized businesses. Corning obviously has enough stature to train their own employees, but we can help that significantly with small and medium business. And we can help with community colleges and these sort of things in getting some of our curriculum out into those schools. And so we do have a role. We do run a university as well, but we do that for internal to Apple only.
Tim, you talked to shareholders all the time. Part of your job. Do any of them say, you know what? Look, 500 billion. I wish you would just buy back stock with the 500 billion. Why are you wasting shareholder money?
You know, I think most of our shareholders believe that we're in the best position to make these type of decisions. And so I have to honestly say I haven't gotten a single complaint about the 600 billion.
When it went from 500 to 600.
Not one. I have not seen one. Not one, not one.
That's kind of remarkable.
I would think there are people who could be enraged and say, you know what? I think that's he's just doing it so he can sell in China or to appease the president.
I'm sure there's somebody out there like that, but they haven't contacted me.
