I had the same thought. It's outlandish that a $1B investment in anything could be viewed as insignificant.

It's enough to impress Trump and keep Apple off his radar for the time being. In terms of Apple's balance sheets, it's found sofa change with a huge ROI.

It makes me wonder.. how much Apple invest in China currently?

Apple's latest 10-K has them with 7.807 billion of long-lived assets in China; the majority of that is going to be manufacturing equipment.

They anticipate $16B of capital expenditure in 2017, where the breakdown there is between US Data Centers, the new campus, and manufacturing equipment requires someone who actually does analysis.

Viewing the investment as insignificant because the investor has more money is a seriously foolish perspective that ought to be fought against instead of expressed

It is a valid point of view. Although perspective and proportionality are equally valid as well.. Apple invest in anyone else but themselves.

It is a point of view that can only be held by people who feel like their opinions on how Apple should spend its money are valid, which is utterly ridiculous in every way that isn't imaginary.

It's probably a decent idea to start "small" (if a billion dollars can be called that) and evaluate how well it works.

Apple's got enough money to experiment with multiple approaches and pour lots into the ones that work down the line.