Apple is just crazy enough to (most likely) enter the auto industry, but it assuredly has no intention of going into the non-profit university business. But should the company do just that?

It’s easy to spend someone else’s money, and Apple might be better served by instead investing in an attempt at a latter-day Bell Labs á la Google X, but in a really smart Marginal Revolution post, economist Alex Tabarrok argues that Apple should devote some of its vast banked wealth to buy a university and reinvent it. An excerpt:

Apple is a for-profit corporation not a charity but there are plenty of ways to make money from a non-profit university. Aside from the tax breaks and other deductions, Apple University would be a proving ground for educational technologies that would be sold to every other university in the world. New textbooks built for the iPad and its successors would greatly increase the demand for iPads. Apple-designed courses built using online technologies, a.i. tutors, and virtual reality experimental worlds could become the leading form of education worldwide. Big data analytics from Apple University textbooks and courses would lead to new and better ways of teaching. As a new university, Apple could experiment with new ways of organizing degrees and departments and certifying knowledge. Campuses in Delhi, Seoul, Shanghai, Berlin, and Sao Paulo could provide opportunities for studying abroad. Apple’s reputation would attract top students, especially, for example, if it started with a design and business school. Top students would lead Apple University to be highly ranked. The more prestigious Apple University became the greater would be the demand for Apple University educational products.•