Apple, utility each give $25M to Black college learning hub

ATLANTA (AP) — Apple and a major utility are each giving $25 million to launch a learning center and business incubator for students of historically Black colleges and universities, part of an outpouring of giving to such schools in the wake of the summer's protests over racial injustice.

The Propel Center will have a physical campus in Atlanta and online offerings meant to reach students at each of the country’s 100-plus historically Black institutions..

Apple also announced Tuesday that it will make grants to HBCU engineering programs to expand curricula, research and lab space, add 100 new scholarships for students and open a first-of-its-kind developer academy in Detroit. It will also invest $10 million over the next 20 years with venture capital firm Harlem Capital to fund startups with diverse founders and $25 million in the Clear Vision Impact Fund for capital loans to small and medium-size businesses, with an emphasis on minority-owned companies.

“We are all accountable to the urgent work of building a more just, more equitable world — and these new projects send a clear signal of Apple’s enduring commitment,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement.

The money from Apple will finance a virtual presence and a 50,000-square-foot (4,650-square-meter) building for the Propel Center near the Atlanta University Center. That's a consortium of four Black colleges — Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse College, Spelman College and the Morehouse School of Medicine — that share resources such as a common library. Another $25 million from Atlanta-based Southern Co., an electric and gas utility, will pay for engineering and career training.

“Propel will provide HBCU student-scholars across the country access to cutting-edge technology, resources, and programming to be globally competitive across...