Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, is currently on a whirlwind tour of Southeast Asia and is in Singapore.
The company in a media release on Thursday said it intends to invest over $250 million to expand its campus in Ang Mo Kio.
His firm is searching for expansion regions outside of China, which has historically been a bastion for its flagship iPhone, where sales are flagging.
To lower risks during a period of heightened tensions between the two largest superpowers in the globe, the company is also expanding the scope of its production outside of the communist nation.
The US IT giant announced that two buildings it purchased in 2022 that are across from its current offices will receive a significant renovation.
Cook said in the statement, “Singapore is truly a one-of-a-kind place, and we are proud of the connection we’ve built with this dynamic community of creators, learners, and dreamers.”
With 72 people, Apple established its first location in Singapore in 1981 with a focus on the Apple II, the company’s first personal computer.
Since then, it has expanded to more than 3,600 workers in the city-state, which now houses Apple’s regional operations centre.
Newsng understands that as part of the drive, the business is almost ready to open Malaysia’s first Apple Store, which will be housed in a posh retail centre in Kuala Lumpur.
According to its website, Apple now has five physical locations in Southeast Asia—three in Singapore and two in Thailand.
In the biggest legislative change that came about as a result of Cook’s visit, the Indonesian government announced on Thursday that it will consider offering incentives to draw in additional Apple investment.
In a video statement, Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister, Luhut Panjaitan, suggested that these may include tax advantages and that the nation should consider following Thailand and India’s lead.
We earlier reported that as per the data released by research firm IDC, Apple’s smartphone shipments decreased by almost 10% in the first quarter of 2024.
As a result, in the first quarter of 2024, Samsung overtook Apple as the world’s leading smartphone manufacturer.
