Apple says it will add hundreds of jobs in Greater Boston by 2026

It’s likely that at least some of the new hires will end up in Kendall Square

Apple announced on Monday that it plans to add “several hundred” jobs in Massachusetts by 2026, part of a commitment to help the country rebuild from the pandemic.Andy Wong/Associated Press

Apple said on Monday that it plans to add several hundred jobs in Massachusetts by 2026, as part of a broader expansion and commitment to help the country rebuild from the pandemic.

The Massachusetts build-out is included in the company’s five-year plan to invest $430 billion and add 20,000 jobs across the United States in tech areas such as silicon engineering, artificial intelligence, 5G, and manufacturing. Apple said it currently has about 200 employees in the state.

“The Boston metro is home to so many talented and creative people, and we’re thrilled to be growing our teams here and be part of this dynamic community,” Kristina Raspe, vice president of worldwide real estate and facilities, said in a statement.

An Apple spokesperson said the company would be hiring for corporate roles in Greater Boston, but declined to comment on the exact location of the expansion or the specific types of jobs.

It’s likely that at least some of the new hires will end up in Kendall Square, where Apple has agreed to lease more than 100,000 square feet of office space on four floors in a new Massachusetts Institute of Technology building at 314 Main St., according to documents filed in Middlesex County.

MIT has marketed the building, which is still under construction, as a “new front door” to the school that would connect its students to the business district surrounding it.

Big tech companies have long wanted to be close to MIT. This area of Cambridge is home to offices for Amazon, Facebook, and Microsoft, and MIT’s new building is across the street from another under-construction building mostly occupied by Google.

As many tech employees continue to work from home because of the pandemic, and companies debate how to bring them back to the office, Big Tech has been expanding its physical presence in Greater Boston, with both Google and Amazon announcing major office expansions in recent months.

The Boston Globe first reported in 2013 that Apple had quietly set up shop in Kendall Square, and a year later that the company was expanding its small post in Cambridge to work on improving the Siri speech-recognition software. Some of that team hailed from Nuance Communications, the Burlington technology firm acquired by Microsoft for nearly $20 billion earlier this month.

But even with plans to hire a few hundred workers in Greater Boston, Apple’s presence in the area is small compared to other big tech companies, which have thousands of employees here. Google, for example, told the Globe last month that it plans to double its 1,900-person workforce in the area, and Amazon is building a tech hub in the Seaport District, with a potential 3,000 jobs.

C.A. Webb, president of the Kendall Square Association, said Apple’s expansion in Massachusetts follows the path other technology companies have taken.

“You plant a seed group, realize the opportunity . . . and then you expand the investment,” she said. “My guess is that this is just the beginning.”

As part of Apple’s announcement, the Silicon Valley giant said it would open its first East Coast campus in the Research Triangle area of North Carolina, which is expected to generate at least 3,000 new jobs.

“At this moment of recovery and rebuilding, Apple is doubling down on our commitment to US innovation and manufacturing with a generational investment reaching communities across all 50 states,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, of Apple, in a statement.

Tim Logan of the Globe staff contributed to this report.