Apple Contributed More Than $1.3 Billion To Support US Industries
February 23, 2021Apple has contributed quite a bit during the past year in the fight against COVID-19. It created and supplied a number of initiatives to help inform the masses, better tools for contact tracing, and financial aid for front liners and relevant companies. Cupertino provided $10 million from its advanced manufacturing fund to COPAN Diagnostics.
And that helped it ship more than 15 million COVID-19 sample collection kits for communities across the United States. Teams at Apple, COPAN, and more than a dozen other US companies created innovative processes and developed new machinery for COPAN’s Southern California facilities.
This has helped it increase test-kit production by close to 4,000% since last April. These kits are vital in our fight against the virus. They confirm COVID-19 infections and allow sufferers to get treated at the earliest possible time. Deploying a multitude of test centers around the country allow people to get tested and avoid infecting others.
“We are proud our Advanced Manufacturing Fund is supporting companies like COPAN who are playing a critical role in the fight against COVID-19 and assisting healthcare professionals and communities across the country,” said Jeff Williams, Apple’s chief operating officer.
“This collaboration helped produce, ship, and deliver millions of sample collection kits to hospitals from coast to coast — and we believe it is this unique combination of American manufacturing and innovation that will help us emerge from this crisis and build a safer world for us all.”
Apple’s advanced manufacturing fund was designed to foster and support high-skills jobs that will eventually give rise to a new era of technology-driven manufacturing in the US. Cupertino has invested over $1.3 billion so far, and this fund has helped support more than 450,000 supplier jobs across all 50 states.
