Apple in NC asked and answered, from RTP campus to latest data center announcement
Tracking Apple’s progress in North Carolina can be confusing.
The company has postponed its Research Triangle Park campus, rarely mentioning this promised 3,000-worker project in public statements. Yet it has also hired locally, adding hundreds of Triangle-area jobs and complying thus far with its 2021 state incentive agreement.
Then on Monday, Apple announced it will invest $500 billion in the United States over the next four years, its biggest spending commitment ever, including on future facilities in Michigan and Texas. But though the company cited North Carolina, it isn’t clear that the iPhone maker made any new pledges in the Tar Heel State.
Some answers are hard to obtain from the notoriously tight-lipped Apple. But public records, investor notes and comments from the company itself offer insights into Apple’s corporate presence in Wake County, and where it might go from here.
Is Apple in the Triangle?
Yes. The company houses corporate staff at leased office space on MetLife’s Global Technology Campus in Cary. Apple also leases a four-story, 139,000-square-foot building on Slater Road in South Durham, near Raleigh-Durham International Airport, that used to be occupied by the global biotech company Biogen.
The company has labeled its MetLife office “Raleigh 1” and its Slater Road office “Raleigh 2.”
Apple won’t share how many workers it has hired in Wake County through its 2021 state incentive agreement, but a company spokesperson told The N&O this week that Apple continues to expand its corporate team around Raleigh.
In June, then-Gov. Roy Cooper said in a statement that Apple had “already hired more than 600 people in the Triangle for this project.”
Hiring more than 600 jobs puts the company ahead of its Triangle jobs schedule. The economic incentive grant Apple received from North Carolina four years ago required the company to employ at least 126 people in Wake County by the end of 2023 and 378 total positions by the end of 2024. Local hiring requirements then rise to at least 990 jobs by the end of this year and 1,350 workers by the end of 2026.
North Carolina will award Apple payroll tax benefits after the company reaches its hiring targets under its performance-based Job Development Investment Grant, or JDIG. This incentive stipulated Apple must pay its Wake County staff an average salary of at least $133,500 through 2025 and $168,000 in all subsequent years.
Did Apple’s investment announcement mention the RTP campus?
No. While the company discussed North Carolina in its news release (more on that below), the Research Triangle Park campus was not included.
In April 2021, Apple committed to building a $552 million campus in the Wake County section of Research Triangle Park, near Cary and Morrisville. Two years later, it filed site plans showing the campus would include three office buildings, three accessory buildings and a parking garage — totaling nearly 900,000 square feet on either side of N.C. 540.
Last June, with no construction started, the company informed state leaders it sought to pause its RTP plans for four years.
“Wake County is not aware of any changes to the status of Apple’s plans for a campus in RTP,” county spokesperson Alice Avery said in an email Tuesday.
Apple actually has a long runway to build its Wake County site; under the terms of its state economic incentive, the company must spend a minimum of $497 million toward an RTP campus by the end of 2031.
Is Apple prioritizing this RTP campus?
Apple’s announcement signaled its near-term focus centers on artificial intelligence manufacturing. On Monday, the company promised a new manufacturing facility in Houston to make servers that support its AI system, called Apple Intelligence, and a new manufacturing academy in Detroit to help businesses integrate AI.
“We believe this was a strategic move by Cook & Co. to continue diversifying its manufacturing strategy in both the US and globally,” the investment firm Wedbush wrote in a Feb. 24 analyst note, referencing Apple CEO Tim Cook. “While also playing well into Trump’s US investment theme given the $500 billion Project Stargate announced earlier this year.”
Others question whether Apple will pull off a half-trillion-dollar domestic spending spree.
“While the headline figure on the surface is a large number, we believe it lacks substance at this juncture based on history,” UBS analyst David Vogt wrote in a note following Monday’s announcement, noting Apple lacks the AI infrastructure scale of competitors like Google, Microsoft, Meta and Amazon.
In 2021, Apple and North Carolina leaders framed the RTP campus as a research and development facility, not a manufacturing site, according to public records obtained by The N&O.
“This project would create a new Scientific Research & Development facility in Wake County,” a state Commerce assessment concluded in April 2021.
The company has not commented on its North Carolina campus’ focus since. In its statement Monday, Apple also said it would increase U.S. research and development spending “to support cutting-edge fields like silicon engineering.”
So, what did Apple say about North Carolina investments on Monday?
Aligning with its emphasis on artificial intelligence, Apple said in its statement that it “will continue expanding data center capacity in North Carolina, Iowa, Oregon, Arizona and Nevada.”
Since 2010, Apple has operated a data center in the Catawba County town of Maiden. Increased demands for cloud computing and AI have accelerated data center construction worldwide in recent years, North Carolina included. With ample land and energy, Catawba has become part of North Carolina’s burgeoning “data center corridor” in the western half of the state.
In addition to building an RTP campus, Apple committed in April 2021 to invest another $440 million at its Maiden site. No hiring requirements were included in its state JDIG, as data centers employ relatively few people in relation to their size.
On Monday, a company spokesperson said Apple has “exceeded planned investments” at the Catawba data center, adding, “We look forward to continuing our long history in the state.”
NC Reality Check is an N&O series holding those in power accountable and shining a light on public issues that affect the Triangle or North Carolina. Have a suggestion for a future story? Email realitycheck@newsobserver.com
This story was originally published February 25, 2025 at 2:33 PM.
