(Reuters) -Verizon said on Tuesday it would invest $5 billion over the next five years in small business suppliers in the U.S. with the goal of boosting domestic supply chains.
The investment program would help create a pipeline of business for these suppliers from Verizon and other large corporations, the company said.
The company also launched a new grant cycle through another existing program, under which small businesses can apply by June 30 for $10,000 in grants.
Verizon joins several big tech companies that have announced billions in investments in the U.S., as President Donald Trump’s administration has pushed for local manufacturing.
Apple has said it would spend $500 billion in U.S. investments in the next four years, while IBM will invest $150 billion over the next five years.
Nvidia said it is planning to build AI servers worth as much as $500 billion in the U.S. over the next four years with help from partners such as TSMC.
Analysts have earlier said they see the spending commitments as overtures to Trump, whose tariffs have threatened to roil supply chains and raise costs for the technology industry.
Only a small portion of Verizon’s annual $18 billion capital expenditure is exposed to tariffs, mainly on imported wireless equipment, CEO Hans Vestberg said on a post-earnings call in April.
Meanwhile, U.S. small-business confidence fell for a fourth straight month in April, according to a report by the National Federation of Independent Business on Tuesday.
(Reporting by Deborah Sophia in Bengaluru and Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Leroy Leo)
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