U.S. President Donald Trump and Apple CEO Tim Cook react as U.S. Vice President JD Vance stands next to them on the day they present Apple’s announcement of a $100 billion investment in U.S. manufacturing, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 6, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Reuters
Apple CEO Tim Cook joined U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on Wednesday (August 6, 2025) to announce a commitment by the tech company to increase its investment in US manufacturing by an additional $100 billion over the next four years.
“This is a significant step toward the ultimate goal of ensuring that iPhones sold in the United States of America also are made in America,” Mr. Trump said at the press conference. “Today’s announcement is one of the largest commitments in what has become among the greatest investment booms in our nation’s history.”
As part of the Apple announcement, the investments will be about bringing more of its supply chain and advanced manufacturing to the United States as part of an initiative called the American Manufacturing Programme, but it is not a full commitment to build its popular iPhone device domestically.
“This includes new and expanded work with 10 companies across America. They produce components — semiconductor chips included — that are used in Apple products sold all over the world, and we’re grateful to the President for his support,” Cook said in a statement announcing the investment.
The new manufacturing partners include Corning, Coherent, Applied Materials, Texas Instruments and Broadcom among others.
Apple had previously said it intended to invest $500 billion domestically, a figure it will now increase to $600 billion. Mr. Trump in recent months criticised the tech company and Mr. Cook for efforts to shift iPhone production to India to avoid the tariffs his Republican administration had planned for China.
While in Qatar earlier this year, Mr. Trump said there was “a little problem” with the Cupertino, California, company and recalled a conversation with Mr. Cook in which he said he told the CEO, “I do not want you building in India.”
Targetting India
India has incurred Trump’s wrath, as the president signed an order on Wednesday to put an additional 25% tariff on the world’s most populous country for its use of Russian oil. The new import taxes to be imposed in 21 days could put the combined tariffs on Indian goods at 50%.
Apple’s new pledge comes just a few weeks after it forged a $500 million deal with MP Materials, which runs the only rare earths producer in the country. That agreement will enable MP Materials to expand a factory in Texas to use recycled materials to produce magnets that make iPhones vibrate.
Speaking on a recent investors call, Mr. Cook emphasised that “there is a load of different things done in the United States”. As examples, he cited some of the iPhone components made in the U.S. such as the device’s glass display and module for identifying people’s faces and then indicated the company was gearing to expand its production of other components in its home country.
“We are doing more in this country, and that is on top of having roughly 19 billion chips coming out of the U.S. now, and we will do more,” Cook told analysts last week, without elaborating.
News of Apple’s latest investment in the US caused the company’s stock price to surge by 5 per cent in Wednesday’s midday trading. That gain reflects investors’ relief that Cook “is extending an olive branch” to the Trump administration, said Nancy Tengler, CEO of money manager Laffer Tengler Investments, which owns Apple stock.
Despite Wednesday’s upturn, Apple’s shares are still down by 15% this year, a reversal of fortune that has also been driven by the company’s botched start in the pivotal field of artificial intelligence.
Published – August 07, 2025 06:00 am IST
