The American company behind the signature glass of the iPhone and dozens of other electronic devices will receive a $200 million investment from Apple, as the company says it is committing to boosting US manufacturing through a billion-dollar jobs fund announced earlier this month.
Corning, whose Gorilla Glass is found in nearly 5 billion products — including those of companies like Samsung, HP, and Dell — will use the money to bolster research and development and cutting-edge glass production, according to Apple. A Corning plant in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, that supplies the glass for the iPhone will be a focus of the investment.
Corning's partnership with Apple began a decade ago with the first iPhone, and their relationship has helped create almost 1,000 US jobs, Corning's CEO and President Wendell Weeks said in a statement. For Apple, the investment is designed in part to support high-skilled jobs in the US. And the announcement follows commitments by other technology companies, including Amazon and Infosys — which have emphasized job-creation initiatives since President Trump took office.
Apple estimates that it provides more than 2 million jobs in the US, even as the majority of its hardware is manufactured in China. Unveiled last week by CEO Tim Cook, Apple's billion-dollar Advanced Manufacturing Fund comes as Trump has pushed job growth as a top priority for his administration.
“We’re really looking at this thing deeply,” Cook said of the manufacturing fund. “How do we grow our employee base? How do we grow our developer base? And how do we grow manufacturing? You’ll see us bring things to market in all of those areas across this year.”