Apple boss Tim Cook is continuing to make good on his promise to return a few manufacturing jobs to the US from Asia with news Monday that the tech company is set to construct a new facility in the city of Mesa, Arizona.
It will also build a new solar power grid to provide power for its manufacturing facility, a 9to5Mac report said Monday.
Of the 2,000 jobs expected to be created by the new production plant, building and management of the site will account for 1,300 positions while the remaining 700 will focus on manufacturing operations.
The facility will reportedly be used to make a number of components for Apple’s various devices, with mineral crystal specialist GT Advanced Technologies involved in the venture, having signed a deal with Apple to provide it with “sapphire materials.”
According to Pocket-lint, sapphire is used in parts such as the iPhone’s Touch ID fingerprint scanner and camera lens.
Apple acknowledged its plan in a statement Monday.
“We are proud to expand our domestic manufacturing initiative with a new facility in Arizona, creating more than 2,000 jobs in engineering, manufacturing and construction,” the tech giant said. “This new plant will make components for Apple products and it will run on 100 percent renewable energy from day one, as a result of the work we are doing with the Salt River Project to create green energy sources to power the facility.”
Arizona governor Janice K. Brewer said Apple would have “an incredibly powerful economic impact” and that its investment in renewable energy “will also be greening our power grid, and creating significant new solar and geothermal power sources for the state.”
Aside from this latest project to produce components on home soil, Apple is also about to start building its revamped Mac Pro at a new facility in Austin, Texas, an initiative in which it’s invested more than $100 million.
But the Cupertino-based company isn’t the only one hoping a ‘Made in the USA’ sticker will help boost sales. Google-owned Motorola is also assembling its Moto X handset in the US, while Lenovo opened a facility in North Carolina earlier this year to produce some of its ThinkPad tablets, among other tech products.
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