Apple owns a hedge fund (the largest in the world) to do just this.

Braeburn Capital.

> the dollar bills under Tim Cook's mattress That gave me a chuckle just imagining it :)

"risk-free rates of return" - typically means "losing value via inflation"

That is a bit of a mis-statement. Apple was in trouble at that time, but it was not on the brink of a bankruptcy (despite the constant use of the word "beleaguered' by the press), and Microsoft's investment did not materially affect Apple's ability to continue. The investment was intended as a show of faith from Microsoft (and turned out to be a good investment).

The far more important part of that announcement was the commitment of Microsoft to continue development of Microsoft Office for the Mac. That was the single biggest symbol that Apple was going to continue. Without Office the Mac was likely doomed to an ever smaller nitch, and everyone knew it. That one commitment on Microsoft's part cemented the Macintosh's place as a big player, and kept Apple from dwindling to the point where bankruptcy would have been a real worry.

Only in an accounting sense is their money stored "around the world". It's all managed by their Nevada investment company Braeburn Capital. They can freely move it to banks in the US or to anywhere else they need it, it's only "overseas" in the sense that they recognized the revenue elsewhere.

Cash and cash equivalents is the line on the balance sheet and includes things like T-Bills and other low-risk investments. Apple almost certainly does better than inflation and regardless, it's completely normal treasury management to return ~0% since if your shareholders wanted exposure to riskier assets, they'd buy those assets with their own money.