Apple is beefing up its plans for expansion into San Diego and revealed today that it plans to hire 1,200 people for its tech hub in the SoCal city.
After revealing late last year that it planned to open a site in San Diego, Apple gave new details on what it says will be a principle engineering hub. The move will put Apple directly in rival Qualcomm’s backyard, but Tim Cook isn’t worried about attracting talent to Apple’s offices.
“Apple has been a part of San Diego for nearly 20 years through our retail presence and small, fast-growing teams – and with this new investment, we are proud to play an even greater part in the city’s future,” said Tim Cook. “You don’t have to try too hard to convince people that San Diego is a great place to live, work and do business, and we’re confident our employees will have a great home among the community there.”
Apple moves into Qualcomm’s backyard
Details on where Apple hub will be located still haven’t been ironed out. Local station 10News reported that the company is eyeing a new building just southwest of Qualcomm’s main campus in University City.
Thrilled that Apple is growing in San Diego, a beautiful city with so much talent! https://t.co/lyO8JQ7ETy
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) March 6, 2019
Apple started hiring a few engineers in San Diego last year. About 10 open job listings were posted in November. The company hopes to have 1,200 employees at its offices by 2022. That doesn’t include the 600 retail employees currently working in the San Deigo metro area.
Moving in on Qualcomm’s turf will be an interesting development to the two companies’ growing rivalry. Apple and Qualcomm have been engaged in a huge legal battle over patent infringements and royalty payments. Rumors have indicated that Apple is building a team to develop its own 5G modems. Qualcomm and Intel are both trying to win the order for 5G modems in the 2020 iPhone, but if all goes according to Apple’s plans, they both could be cut out of the iPhone business entirely.
