Sam Oliver
A meeting this week between Apple chief executive Tim Cook and Israeli President Reuven Rivlin reportedly included assurances from Cook that the company intends to continue growing its operations in the region, a large part of which are focused on chip design.
"We've hired our first individual in Israel in 2011 and we now have over 700 people working in Israel directly for us," Cook said, according to the Wall Street Journal. "Israel and Apple have gotten much closer together over the last three years than ever before, and we see that as just the beginning."
The balance of Cook's conversation with Rivlin remains unknown, but it is likely to have revolved around economic development.
The new research facility in Herzlyia is Apple's second in Israel, joining an existing outpost in Haifa. The 700 employees manning those offices were largely boosted by the acquisitions of Israeli startups Anobit and PrimeSense, as well as the hiring of numerous former Texas Instruments chip designers after that firm shuttered its Israeli operations.
Apple is one of hundreds of western technology companies with research facilities in Israel, as the nation churns out an impressive array of technological advances. A focus on scientific education and massive investments in technology by the government and the Israeli Defense Force have led to a surplus of engineering talent that rivals that found in Silicon Valley.
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16 Comments
I hope Apple can benefit from some of the billions the US send there each year.
I hope Apple can benefit from some of the billions the US send there each year.
The US benefits SIGNIFICANTLY from Israel on many fronts. How many billions does the US throw at our enemies to keep them in check (no pun intended) - might as well just flush it down the toilet.
[quote name="digitalclips" url="/t/184955/apples-tim-cook-pledges-more-growth-in-israel-during-meeting-with-israeli-president#post_2681568"]I hope Apple can benefit from some of the billions the US send there each year.[/quote] Not me. I never want Apple to be in a position where they are being subsidized or bailed out. They'd be so compromised, their every product would be subject to scrutiny beyond what China just did for political reasons.
Tim Cook is a smart cookie. Going around the world meeting world leaders and highlighting how many jobs Apple is creating in their countries. Also emphasizing clean energy is excellent. Next stop Asia I presume where he can boast about new research center in Japan and then bolster Apple's already dominant position in CHina.
Smart move. When I lived in Israel (1979), it was still a blue-collar, agricultural country. My kibbutz raised chickens and made screws. Now the country is a high-tech powerhouse. Some of that resulted from the immigration of well-educated Jewish-Russian scientists after the fall of the USSR. Most of it is because Jews tend to be smart and value education. Their misfortunate is that some of their neighbors are among the stupidest people on the planet. Imagine your neighbors were: 1. A talented electrical engineer and software designer. 2. The chief of medicine at a top-notch hospital. 3. The head of a firm that builds and remodels homes. That's Israel among its neighbors. You'd be taking advantage of them for advice and perhaps job leads wouldn't you? Of course you would. Not so these stupider-than-stumps Palestinians. In Gaza, rather than taking well-paying jobs with Jewish firms just up the road in Tel Avi or making sure their kids get a good education, they spend every penny they can steal from international aid digging tunnels, so they can sneak out and kill Jewish kids attending a preschool. I said they were stupid, but hate-filled idiots might be more accurate. There's no reason to feel sorry for them. They deserve their misery and more. They're a perfect illustration of the politics of hate. You can find similar examples around the world. Israeli prime minister Golda Meir put it perfectly when she said, "Peace will come to the Middle East when the Arabs love their children more than they hate us." She made that remark in 1957 and it remains true today, almost sixty years later.