Apple Inc is set to open its first technology development centre outside the United States in Hyderabad. The centre is expected to create around 4,500 jobs. It will be built on a 2,50,000-sq ft plot of land in HITEC city at an estimated cost of $25 million (Rs 150 crore). The Silicon Valley giant will first open its innovation centre in June and will launch full-fledged operations by end-2016.

Secretary to the IT department of Telangana, Jayesh Ranjan, said Apple’s decision to open the facility in Hyderabad was a “strong endorsement” of the city as a major IT hub in India. Apple is expected to sign a memorandum of understanding either by the end of this month or early in March. It had shut down its tech-support centre in Bengaluru 10 years ago, claiming poor quality of services.

Earlier, Google chief executive Sundar Pichai had announced his company’s plans to open South Asia’s biggest campus – Google’s only campus outside its US headquarters – in Hyderabad. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, too, had said his company will expand its operations in the state.