Apple is famous for being silent about its business operations.
But today the company released a statement about its relationship with American small businesses, prompted by Apple SVP of Operations Jeff Williams, who attended a meeting with President Obama after Apple adopted the White House's SupplierPay initiative.
“Last year, Apple spent more than $3 billion with over 7,000 suppliers running small and diverse businesses, creating tens of thousands of U.S. jobs,” said the company in a statement obtained by TechCrunch.
SupplierPay requires Apple to pay its small business contractors within 15 days. The initiative is based off of the QuickPay program, which stipulates that the federal government pay contractors within 15 days.
The thinking goes that speeding up payments to small businesses will enable them to grow at a faster rate.
Apple is not the only large company to join the SupplierPay initiative. AT&T, Salesforce, and Coca-Cola are among the 26 companies to agree to speed up contractor payments.