Apple CEO Tim Cook visited Israel Wednesday to inaugurate Apple’s new R&D Center in Herzliya and meet with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, The Times of Israel reported.
“It is a great privilege to host you and your team here in Israel,” Rivlin told Cook. “Even for me, as one who prefers to write with a pen and paper, it is clear what a great miracle you have created when I look at my staff, and my grandchildren.”
Cook thanked Rivlin for his kind words, saying that he and his staff “have an enormous admiration for Israel, not just as an important ally for the US, but as a place to do business.” …
Apple’s R&D relationship with Israel goes back to 2012, when the US tech giant bought out Haifa-based Anobit, a maker of the flash memory controllers used in many Apple products.
A source inside the hi-tech company told the Times that it was hiring dozens more engineers in Israel, “bringing with them knowledge that Apple does not currently possess, and they will get a finished product almost specifically made for them. It’s part of Apple’s new strategy of developing the technology it needs in-house, instead of relying on outside companies and contractors.”
The Wall Street Journal provided context about Apple’s Israeli expansion:
Apple isn’t the only global tech giant setting up shop in Israel. Google, Facebook, IBM, Hewlett-Packard and more than 250 other international companies have all established R&D centers in the country, many times following local acquisitions.
The Journal suggests that given Apple’s acquisition of Anobit and another Israeli firm, PrimeSense, it is likely that the focus of a new R&D center will be chip design.
Heading Apple’s efforts on chip capabilities is Johny Srouji, vice president of hardware technologies at the company.
Mr. Srouji, an Israeli Arab who grew up in Haifa, joined Apple in 2008. He is accompanying Mr. Cook on his current visit. He is also regarded as the person who led Apple’s expansion in Israel.
“We’ve hired our first individual in Israel in 2011 and we now have over 700 people working in Israel directly for us,” Mr. Cook said in the meeting with Israeli president Reuven Rivlin on Wednesday.
[Photo: President Reuven “Ruby” Rivlin / YouTube ]