Apple to build new Austin hub, expand in other tech hotbeds

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Apple plans to build a $1 billion campus in Austin that will create at least 5,000 jobs ranging from engineers to call-center agents while adding more luster to a Southwestern city that has already become a bustling tech hub.

The decision, announced today, comes 11 months after Apple CEO Tim Cook disclosed plans to open a major office outside California on the heels of a massive tax break passed by Congress last year. The tax cut on overseas profits prompted the company to bring about $250 billion back to the U.S., freeing up money for more investments and higher dividends for Apple shareholders.

The company said it will also hire thousands more engineers in several other emerging high-tech hotbeds. Apple plans to open three new offices that will each employ at least 1,000 workers in Seattle, San Diego and Culver City, Calif. Apple also pledged to add hundreds of new jobs each in New York, Pittsburgh, Boston, Boulder, Colo., and Portland, Ore.

"They are just picking America's most established superstar cities and tech hubs," said Richard Florida, an urban development expert at the University of Toronto.

Apple's scattershot expansion reflects the increasing competition for engineers in Silicon Valley, which has long been the high-tech capital in U.S.

The bidding for programmers is driving salaries ever higher, which in turn is catapulting the average prices of homes in many parts of the San Francisco Bay Area above $1 million, causing many workers with computer coding skills to live in less-expensive places with less traffic congestion.