Green-washing, probably. But big tech’s hunger for rare earth components is real enough.
The company will buy rare earth magnets created by MP Materials. Both companies will combine on a new recycling line in Mountain Pass, Calif., to meet global demand. Apple said it plans to spend more than $500 billion in the U.S. over the next couple of years on advancing manufacturing and next-generation recycling technologies.
Cynical take would be more appeasement than green washing, given US president push to Americanize blah blah.
Full stop on global rare earth export outta China makes the need real perhaps, per your hunger comment.
To do “$500 billion in the US over the next couple of years” they would have to do a deal of this size nearly every day for the next 3 years.
My understanding on this is that Apple is expanding existing contracts. Some involve doubling billion dollar contracts which adds up faster than this deal.
One of the things they announced when they made the original pledge was 20k for new high income jobs which is easily billions per year in salaries. Plus this requires expanding their various campuses because they do not allow work from home, so several more billion there.
These tech companies are massive so expanding their existing footprints adds up very quickly. Other mega tech corps like Meta and Google are increase spending by tens of billions just on AI expansion, however they haven’t pledge that be specific to the US.
