Apple is going all in on “American innovation” with its unprecedented pledge to invest over $500 billion in the U.S. by 2027, amid imminent threat of facing Trump tariffs.
Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, labeled the investment as a testament to Apple’s confidence in the future of American innovation. The tech giant’s dollars will work hard across various fronts including AI, silicon engineering, and high-skilled manufacturing.
A new advanced manufacturing facility in Houston is among the headline projects, specifically slated to produce servers for Apple Intelligence.
Once complete in 2026, the facility is expected to employ thousands. Previously, similar production took place overseas, and this U.S. expansion aligns with Apple’s renewed commitment to domestic growth, the company said.
In addition to upping the Advanced Manufacturing Fund from $5 billion to $10 billion, Apple’s plans spread across several states. This includes funding advanced silicon production at TSMC’s Fab 21 in Arizona, which recently began chip mass production.
This announcement follows a statement from Trump on Friday (via Bloomberg) that Cook promised to bring manufacturing back to the United States from Mexico.
“They don’t want to be in the tariffs,” he said.
Cook has been cozying up — much like his Big Tech counterparts like Google’s Sundar Pichai and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg — to Trump following his election to the office of the president for the second term.
Yet, navigating these challenges isn’t new for the iPhone maker.
During President Donald Trump’s first term, escalating trade tensions between the United States and China prompted Apple to diversify its manufacturing operations beyond China.
In response, Apple significantly expanded its production footprint in India and Vietnam. By 2025, Apple and its suppliers, including Foxconn and Tata Electronics, had established manufacturing plants in the Indian states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
Notably, Foxconn commenced production of the iPhone 16 Pro in India, marking a substantial shift in Apple’s manufacturing strategy. Although approximately 15% of iPhones were produced in India by 2025, this figure is projected to rise to 25% by 2027, as reported by the Financial Times.
Simultaneously, Apple increased its manufacturing presence in Vietnam. By 2024, Apple had added eight new partners in Vietnam, bringing the total number of vendors in the country to 35, making Vietnam Apple’s leading supplier hub in Southeast Asia and its fourth-largest globally.
Vietnam now hosts substantial manufacturing facilities that assemble various Apple products, including AirPods, iPads, and Apple Watches.