Silicon Hills
Silicon Hills is a nickname for the cluster of high-tech companies in the Austin metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Texas. The name is analogous to Silicon Valley, but refers to the hilly terrain on the west side of Austin. High tech industries in the area include enterprise software, semiconductors, corporate R&D, biotechnology, gaming, and a variety of startup companies.
Apple Inc.
Apple has a satellite campus in neighboring Sunnyvale, California, where it houses a testing and research laboratory. AppleInsider published article in March 2014 claiming that Apple has a tucked away a top-secret facility where is developing the SG5 electric vehicle project codenamed "Titan" under the shell company name SixtyEight Research.
In 2006, Apple announced its intention to build a second campus in Cupertino about east of the current campus and next to Interstate 280. The new campus building has been designed by Norman Foster. The Cupertino City Council approved the proposed "spaceship" design campus on October 15, 2013, after a 2011 presentation by Jobs detailing the architectural design of the new building and its environs. The new campus is planned to house up to 13,000 employees in one central, four-storied, circular building surrounded by extensive landscape. It will feature a café with room for 3,000 sitting people and parking underground as well as in a parking structure. The 2.8million square foot facility will also include Jobs's original designs for a fitness center and a corporate auditorium.
Apple has expanded its campuses in Austin, Texas concurrently with building Apple Park in Cupertino. The expansion consists of two locations, with one having 1.1million square feet of workspace, and the other 216,000 square feet. Apple will invest $1 billion to build the North Austin campus. At the biggest location, 6,000 employees work on technical support, manage Apple's network of suppliers to fulfill product shipments, aid in maintaining iTunes Store and App Store, handle economy, and continuously update Apple Maps with new data. At its smaller campus, 500 engineers work on next-generation processor chips to run in future Apple products.