Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, met yesterday top executives of some of the world’s largest tech giants and sought investments from them in his state.

The much anticipated Apple Inc thrust into AP got a boost on Saturday, following Naidu’s meeting with the Apple company’s Chief Operating Officer, Jeff Williams.

Naidu said Williams, “This is the correct time, for Apple to invest in India, as it has been developing consistently.”

The Chief Minister added that, AP offered tremendous opportunities, apart from being a state that has just started building itself from the scratch post-bifurcation. The Apple company would do well to enter AP, which has been adjudged the best state to do business with, and has a productive young population.

During the United States-India Business Council (USIBC) West Coast Summit in Silicon Valley, the AP CM would also receive the “Transformative Chief Minister Award.” Naidu has been selected for this award for his efforts to strengthen ties between the countries at same level. Around 150 leaders from the sectors such as information technology, banking, food processing, health care, clean energy and digital payment, will participate in the summit. In addition, Texas-based firm, Dell has also expressed interest in setting up a data centre in the AP capital, when when Naidu met Srikanth Satya, a top executive of Dell in Dallas. After the NRI CEO’s meet, Naidu visited the University of Silicon Andhra.

Different MoU’s were even signed with Innova Solutions, I-Bridge Inc and EVX Solutions, which is expected to create over 12,000 jobs. The AP Government, also aims to have a computer expert, entrepreneur and artist in every household. Naidu also had a meeting with the California Governor, Jerry Brown, and invited the US state to join hands with AP so as to build a greenfield capital with global opportunities.

Vice-President of Qualcomm, Gopi Sirineni, NIO USA CEO Padmasree Warrior, CEO of Flectronics, Mike McNamara were among others who met the AP CM. The leaders expressed their interest in the state’s Fiber Grid project, and also expansion of their respective companies in the state.

During Naidu’s visit to Google X, he appreciated the innovative efforts, taken towards mobility and learnt about various features of the driver-less car at Waymo. Naidu even paid humble floral tributes to Mahatma Gandhi’s statue at the largest Gandhi Memorial in Irving, near Dallas, on Saturday. He later appreciated Prasad Thotakura, the man behind the initiative, and his dedicated management team for their persistent efforts in constructing a huge memorial in just five months with one million dollar budget, and also collaboration with the Irving city officials.

Later in the evening, Naidu was greeted at the community wide reception by thousands of Indian origin Telugu community members at Irving, Conventions Center. Naidu was welcomed by the Indian Consul-General in Houston, Anupam Ray, at the reception. Naidu gave a quick overview of the Telugu community, and praised them for their contribution in developing jobs and prosperity. He also lauded the Indian Americans and the people of Telugu origin for their enormous contributions. The AP CM further said, he was looking forward to make the AP state a model state for the rest of the world by gathering strong business alliances in the USA.

Naidu was accompanied by his 16-member team comprising, Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu, Government Advisor (Communications) Parakala Prabhakar and senior officials, will visit Washington DC, San Francisco, California, New York, Chicago and other states. The highlights of the tour would be the agreements for sister-state relations with California, Illinois and Iowa, and bilateral meetings with 35 CEOs of some of the world’s biggest companies.

The AP CM would even visit the offices and manufacturing facilities of companies like Apple, Tesla, CISCO, Oracle and Flextronics, reports the Ministers US Itinerary from his office. Naidu would also hold discussions with the Universities of Stanford, Iowa, North Texas and Dallas, during the visit. MoU’s would be signed with State Universities, like the one for collaboration in seed science with the Iowa State University.

SUPRAJA