Apple is donating $2.5 billion towards the California housing crisis

REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

Apple CEO Tim Cook.

• Apple CEO Tim Cook announced the company will be spending $2.5 billion to help with the California housing crisis.
• Cook told Axios in an interview that the problem is too big for the public sector to handle on its own.
• Facebook and Google both announced similar donations of $1 billion earlier this year.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed in an interview with Axios published Monday that the company is spending $2.5 billion towards alleviating the California housing crisis.

Cook told Axios the problem is "unsustainable" and too big for the public sector to handle on its own.

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The money is not an out-and-out donation but rather a spending plan with different pots of money and land assigned to different efforts.

• $1 billion will go towards an affordable housing investment fund which Cook said will "provide the state and others with an open line of credit to develop and build additional new, very low- to moderate-income housing faster and at a lower cost."
• Another $1 billion will be put into a first-time homebuyer mortgage assistance fund.
• $300 million of Apple-owned land in San Jose will be given over to build affordable housing.
• $150 million is going towards "Bay Area housing fund" which will be run in tandem with nonprofits including the Housing Trust Silicon Valley.
• $50 million is a straight donation to homelessness charity Destination: Home.

Apple is the third big tech company this year to announce a spending plan for combatting the housing crisis in California - which is largely attributed to an influx wealthy tech workers pricing residents out of their homes. Facebook pledged $1 billion towards the crisis last month, and Google revealed a $1 billion spending plan in June.

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