Apple awards glassmaker Corning $200M to grow made in USA jobs with Advanced Manufacturing...
Apple has invested into Gorilla Glass manufacturer Corning with the first award for $200 million from the Advanced Manufacturing Fund investment pool, to support "revolutionary glass production methods."

On Friday, Apple announced that Kentucky's Corning Incorporated will get the first disbursement from the fund for the company's "R&D, capital equipment needs, and state-of-the-art glass processing."
"Corning is a great example of a supplier that has continued to innovate and they are one of Apple's long-standing suppliers. This partnership started 10 years ago with the very first iPhone, and today every customer that buys an iPhone or iPad anywhere in the world touches glass that was developed in America," said Apple Chief Operating officer Jeff Williams. "We're extremely proud of our collaboration over the years and we are investing further with Corning who has such a rich legacy of innovative manufacturing practices."
Apple notes that the partnership between it and Corning has generated and sustained 1,000 jobs, with 400 in Harrodsburg, Kentucky alone. Also likely contributing to the award is Corning's acquisition of enough renewable energy to cover all of its Apple manufacturing in the U.S.
Corning is on its fifth iteration of Gorilla Glass. According to the company, the new product survives up to 80 percent of the time when dropped face-down from a height of just over five feet onto rough surfaces, as opposed to the smoother surfaces that previous testing was performed on. Previous drop testing was performed from around 40 inches.
Apple currently uses sapphire for the Apple Watch Series 2, the Touch ID sensor covering, and the lens cover on the iPhone 7 family. Despite rumors for many years to the contrary, the investment into Corning suggests that Apple may not shift to sapphire screens for any imminent iPhones.
On May 3, in an interview with CNBC's Jim Cramer, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced the creation of the fund. Other than Friday's award, few hard details are known about the fund.
"We're really proud to do it," Cook said. "By doing that we can be the ripple in the pond, because if we can create many manufacturing jobs, those manufacturing jobs create more jobs around them."
The fund is in addition to Apple's $1 billion commitment to SoftBank's Vision Fund. The Vision Fund is a $100 billion pool created to accelerate the development of technology around the world, with $50 billion earmarked for U.S. companies.

On Friday, Apple announced that Kentucky's Corning Incorporated will get the first disbursement from the fund for the company's "R&D, capital equipment needs, and state-of-the-art glass processing."
"Corning is a great example of a supplier that has continued to innovate and they are one of Apple's long-standing suppliers. This partnership started 10 years ago with the very first iPhone, and today every customer that buys an iPhone or iPad anywhere in the world touches glass that was developed in America," said Apple Chief Operating officer Jeff Williams. "We're extremely proud of our collaboration over the years and we are investing further with Corning who has such a rich legacy of innovative manufacturing practices."
Apple notes that the partnership between it and Corning has generated and sustained 1,000 jobs, with 400 in Harrodsburg, Kentucky alone. Also likely contributing to the award is Corning's acquisition of enough renewable energy to cover all of its Apple manufacturing in the U.S.
Corning is on its fifth iteration of Gorilla Glass. According to the company, the new product survives up to 80 percent of the time when dropped face-down from a height of just over five feet onto rough surfaces, as opposed to the smoother surfaces that previous testing was performed on. Previous drop testing was performed from around 40 inches.
Apple currently uses sapphire for the Apple Watch Series 2, the Touch ID sensor covering, and the lens cover on the iPhone 7 family. Despite rumors for many years to the contrary, the investment into Corning suggests that Apple may not shift to sapphire screens for any imminent iPhones.
On May 3, in an interview with CNBC's Jim Cramer, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced the creation of the fund. Other than Friday's award, few hard details are known about the fund.
"We're really proud to do it," Cook said. "By doing that we can be the ripple in the pond, because if we can create many manufacturing jobs, those manufacturing jobs create more jobs around them."
The fund is in addition to Apple's $1 billion commitment to SoftBank's Vision Fund. The Vision Fund is a $100 billion pool created to accelerate the development of technology around the world, with $50 billion earmarked for U.S. companies.
Comments
Apple: "Right, we'll invest in the future by supporting US companies and emerging technology"
As a non US customer I'm missing something like "Corning is our supplier because their product is the best". Otherwise Apple should use the alkali aluminosilicate glass from whoever is the best.
By the way yes, I realize this money is going to Kentucky where Gorilla glass is manufactured, but its the partnership as a whole I'm talking about. Corning is now doing quite well with not only its Gorilla Glass line, but also its other things it engineers and manufacturers.
One way would be to give every American, not just rich ones at least a chance to get a quality education for free. New York State is kinda doing something like this where if you make under I think its $120,000 or 100,000/yr you can go to College for free. There are some catches to it such as you have to live in NYS for at least 4yrs after gravitating or else it turns into a loan and there are a couple of other things that I wish weren't there. But, at least its a start. Why can't the US as a whole do this? There are a lot of people in this country that have great potential, but don't want a $100,000+ debt to get there that they may never be able to pay off. We need to start helping the lower and middle class instead of focusing on padding the top 1%'s pockets. We will seriously fail in the end otherwise in my opinion. It may take a while, but this country will start to fail.
The difference is in the marketing.
They've been inventing the future, just as American companies have always done to some extent and with mixed results. So have other companies around the world.
Long before the rise of this "America first" stupidity, Apple and Corning were doing some of the best work in their fields. Your attempt to co-opt thieir competence with this exclusionist, patriotic nonsense is offensive. And self-defeating, like Trump himself. The air's going to leak out of the over-inflated balloon, one way or another.
Imagine how the whole GT Advanced thing would have been marketed today (before it imploded, of course).
- grant (a gift, with no repayment to Apple)
- investment (money provided with some anticipated return / benefit)
COO Jeff Williams uses the word, "investing". I'm curious what form the payback will take...i.e., just improved products, or some financial ROI?