Apple pledges $2.5 billion to fight California housing crisis

Apple Inc on Monday said it would commit $2.5 billion to easing a housing shortage that has driven up prices across California, with most of the money dedicated to funds that will be run either with or by the state government.

One billion dollars will go to a jointly run fund with state officials aimed at jumpstarting delayed or stalled affordable housing projects. Another $1 billion will go to a state-run fund to provide first-time home buyer financial assistance to teachers, nurses and first responders such as police and firefighters, among others.

In an interview with Reuters, Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said the company felt a “profound responsibility” to improve California’s housing crisis. Apple’s current headquarters - a ring of gleaming metal and glass nicknamed the “spaceship” in Cupertino, California - sits less than five miles from the suburban family home where co-founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak assembled the first Apple computers in the 1970s.

“We want to make sure that it is a vibrant place where people can live and also raise a family,” Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook told Reuters in an interview. “And there’s no question that today that isn’t possible for many people, that the region suffers from an affordability crisis that is existential.”