Apple has announced a very large number — $500 billion — that it plans to spend investing in its U.S. operations over the next four years. That includes everything from building a huge new factory in Texas to make AI data servers to hiring 20,000 more R&D workers to all the shows and movies the company produces for Apple TV. 

Why this news from one of America’s premier tech companies? And why now?

Apple’s announcement comes amid the looming threat of new import tariffs from the Donald Trump administration that could hit Apple’s global supply chain and its biggest cash cow: iPhones. 

It also comes days after President Trump met with Apple CEO Tim Cook, who Dan Ives at Wedbush Securities calls “10% politician, 90% CEO. Definitely a good poker move — to make sure if there’s loopholes, exclusions to tariffs, they get them.”

Apple has got a lot to lose from new tariffs, per Christine McDaniel, a senior research fellow at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center.

“They’re probably importing between $60 billion and $100 billion each year,” she said.

Apple now says it’ll produce more domestically, especially cutting-edge software and AI.

But as for Apple’s overall production spending, “we do expect an overwhelming majority to continue to go into China,” said Angelo Zino, senior vice president at CFRA Research.

That overall investment will also increasingly go to its low-cost neighbor, India.