As Apple broke ground at its newest campus in Austin, Texas, CEO Tim Cook spoke with ABC News.
Cook said he’s “proud” to build the new MacPro [sic] in America at the highly anticipated new Austin campus [sic] [recte At Apple supplier Flex Ltd.’s assembly plant in Austin], though he admitted it’s unlikely iPhones ever will be produced in the U.S.
“We are really proud to make the MacPro [sic] here — this computer is our most powerful computer we’ve ever made, by far,” Cook said in an exclusive interview with ABC News’ Rebecca Jarvis on Wednesday. “It performs over 50 trillion tasks per second. I mean, this is just mind-blowing.”
Apple just broke ground on its $1 billion campus in Austin. The facility is expected to open in 2022 with about 5,000 employees, but it will have the capacity for about 15,000.
President Donald Trump flew to Austin Wednesday to visit the new facility.
“I don’t believe in having people talk on my behalf,” Cook said of his conversations with the president. “I don’t believe in lobbyists. I believe in direct conversation. I strongly believe in engagement. I hate polarization. I despise it.”
The Apple chief said that he doesn’t want to “speculate” on how the next round of China tariffs could raise the price of iPhones.
“I’m hoping that the U.S. and China come to an agreement, and so I don’t even want to go down that road right now,” Cook said. “I’m so convinced that it’s in the best interest of the U.S. and best interest of China, and so if you have two parties where there’s a common best interest there has got to be some kind of path forward here. And I think that will happen.”
MacDailyNews Take: Also a nice ad for Apple’s new Apple Watch Series 5 with its Always-On Retina display!