Donald Trump has celebrated a commitment by Apple to increase its investments in US manufacturing by an additional $100bn over the next four years. The announcement, made at the White House on Wednesday, comes as the tech giant seeks to avoid the president’s threatened tariffs, which would raise costs for its complex international supply chain.
Apple has previously said it intended to invest $500bn domestically, a figure that will now rise to $600bn. The company also said it would directly hire 20,000 US workers over the next four years, and that the new investments will involve work with ten companies across the US producing components used in Apple products.
Speaking after receiving a US-made souvenir with a 24-karat gold base from Apple’s chief executive, Tim Cook, Trump told reporters: “Companies like Apple, they’re coming home … This is a significant step toward the ultimate goal of ensuring that iPhones sold in America also are made in America.” Cook said many components, including glass, semiconductors and Face ID, are already made domestically, but final assembly would remain overseas “for a while”.
The announcement came as Trump doubled US tariffs on India from 25% to 50%, a move that could affect Apple’s efforts to shift some iPhone production to India. The company had shipped as many as 1.5m iPhones from India to the US in April to get ahead of potential tariffs, according to Reuters.
Apple has been uniquely exposed to Trump’s trade wars, as iPhones include parts from dozens of countries and are largely assembled in China. Analysts generally view an American-made iPhone as a pipe dream, prompting the company to navigate uncertainty by expanding domestic component production. Apple recently struck a $500m deal with MP Materials, which runs the only rare earths mine in the US, to produce magnets for iPhone vibration motors.
Apple’s latest earnings beat Wall Street expectations, with strong iPhone sales, and its stock rose more than 5% on Wednesday following the announcement. Cook told analysts last week: “We’re doing more in this country, and that’s on top of having roughly 19bn chips coming out of the US now, and we will do more.”
