Consumer electronics giant Apple Inc. needs more time to make good on job-creation targets if it wants to receive lucrative economic incentives from North Carolina, state officials said Tuesday.
A North Carolina Department of Commerce committee voted Tuesday to adjust the timeline for the state’s ongoing incentives deal with Apple.
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The maker of MacBook computers and mobile devices such as iPads and iPhones in 2021 announced plans to build a 1 million-square-foot research and development campus in the Wake County section of Research Triangle Park. The project was originally expected to create 3,000 jobs in the county by the end of 2034. The first year of the deal — which included job-development grant payments worth up to $845 million over 12 years — was initially scheduled to be 2023.
The Commerce Department’s Economic Investment Committee, which approves state economic incentives deals, agreed Tuesday to push back by four years the base period for the 2021 deal with Apple. Under the updated agreement, the first year of the base period will now be 2027, meaning the company will start being measured on its performance as of Dec. 31 of that year and then each year thereafter until 2036.
The decision comes about two months after lawmakers changed state law to allow commerce officials to reset the base period applied to certain economic development projects. The law was tailored to focus on companies at the center of what the state calls “transformative” projects — generally companies that promise large investments and a significant number of jobs. The law, passed in September, allowed base-period adjustments for certain companies with 1,000 employees in the state and which haven’t yet received job development grant payments.
The state’s performance-based incentives deals require companies to meet annual hiring and investment targets to receive annual payments under the grant.
Apple already had 1,100 North Carolina employees when the 2021 deal was struck and was expected to retain those positions through the life of the 12-year grant. Apple was expected to have created at least 990 additional jobs by the end of 2025.
The company said in June 2024 that it had created at least 600 jobs in the Triangle since the deal was struck and that it was committed to growing in the region. But it said at the time that it would delay building the physical RTP campus by up to four years as it conducted a company-wide real estate review. The company leases space elsewhere in the region.
Apple currently employs about 1,630 people in the state, according to state records released Tuesday. It wasn’t immediately clear how many jobs those jobs qualify toward the company's job-creation targets. Spokespeople for Apple didn’t immediately respond to WRAL’s requests for details about the company’s plans. The company indicated in a letter to state officials this month that it is moving forward with its plans in North Carolina.
Commerce officials had been conducting a regular review of the company’s plans, officials said last year. The company’s RTP project — if it comes to fruition — is projected to grow the state’s economy by $79.8 billion over 39 years. The promised jobs are expected to offer salaries that average $187,001 — almost three times the county average at the time of the announcement.
It would be reasonable for state officials to be concerned about the viability of expansions planned by tech companies. Microsoft and Amazon, for instance, have laid off thousands of workers in recent months as they’ve ramped up spending on artificial intelligence. Apple this week confirmed cuts to its sales team, Bloomberg and Reuters reported.
But Chief Deputy Secretary of Commerce Kenny Flowers said he has been encouraged by Apple's hiring progress locally and that the deadline adjustment represents the state’s commitment to Apple and its faith that the company will ultimately make good on its hiring plans, even if it’s taking a little longer than initially anticipated.
“This is a very complex puzzle of economic development,” Flowers told WRAL Tuesday. “Sometimes it takes longer than we expect, but we feel really good about their commitment to the state.”
'More flexibility'
Site-selection managers, meanwhile, see the state's decision to adjust the timeline — and Apple’s continued public commitment to the expansion — as important signals to other companies.
“This sends a positive message to other signature, trophy employers in North Carolina, and other companies considering relocating or expanding in North Carolina, that the state will work with you — and not against you — to create more flexibility to meet your requirements,” said John Boyd, founder and principal at the Boyd Company Inc., which helps corporations find locations for expansions.
It is common for companies to ask state officials to terminate incentive deals when hiring plans change or when a company fails to meet investment targets. State incentives deals often span decades, moving through economic cycles, strategic changes and mergers that can change the trajectory of companies’ growth. Many companies rethought growth plans across the nation coming out of the pandemic, as they faced inflated building costs, higher interest rates, increased labor costs and adapted to new remote-work policies. The state’s job-development grant program takes those kinds of changes into account.
“The program is designed for a dynamic economy, and that’s why it pays on performance — not up front,” said David Rhoades, a state Department of Commerce spokesman.
The committee on Tuesday agreed to terminate incentives agreements with Marshall USA and Corning Inc. after they failed to meet goals set out in their deals.
Corning in part failed to meet hiring requirements tied to a 2017 agreement that promised to create 428 manufacturing and warehousing jobs in Edgecombe and Durham counties. The industrial materials company received $270,000 of a possible $3.2 million over 12 years. Corning said in a letter to Commerce officials that lower demand from life sciences companies caused it to reduce positions or freeze hiring. The company and its subsidiaries had more than 2,400 existing employees at the end of 2024, the most recent reporting period, but they failed to create any jobs that counted toward incentives targets.
And Marshall asked to cancel its 2023 deal that once promised to create 240 jobs in Guilford County. The company maintains operations in the state, but it wasn’t able to hit hiring targets, officials said. The UK-based aircraft maintenance company didn’t receive any payments under its deal, which would have paid up to $2.4 million over 12 years. In a letter to state officials, Marshall said it only had four employees at the Guilford facility and that it wouldn’t hire more due to a lack of new contracts and shifting timelines for existing contracts.
Corning and Marshall weren’t eligible for the kind of deadline adjustment Apple qualified for under the new law, Rhoades said.
Spokespeople for Corning and Marshall didn’t immediately respond to requests for additional comment.
Despite the cancellations and delays, economic developers aren’t worried about North Carolina’s prospects. The state is consistently ranked among the best states in which to do business. In 2025, the state has announced projects promising to create 33,000 new jobs in North Carolina. Last week alone, state officials announced seven new economic development projects that could bring more than 3,400 jobs and investments eclipsing $1.8 billion.
And on Tuesday, officials approved an incentives package for Environmental Air Systems, which plans a $20 million assembly plant that would create 300 jobs in Randolph County. The state offered a jobs grant worth up to $3.2 million over 12 years if the company meets its hiring and investment targets. The expansion is projected to grow the state’s economy by $732 million over the life of the grant, if it makes good on its plans.
“The sky is not falling,” Flowers said. “The sky’s going to be there.”
As for the Apple deal: “It might be a little longer before that sun comes out fully,” he said, “but it’s there.”
