Apple announces American Manufacturing Program
156 comments
·August 6, 2025xnx
AlecSchueler
Have we also seen them couple the announcements with similar gifts of gold given personally to the sitting president?
https://www.theverge.com/news/737757/apple-president-donald-...
MaxPock
The reason why they don't amount to anything is because there is usually no follow-up and accountability. In China,after such an announcement ,a CCP official(whose promotion hinges on successful implementation of the investment)would have been assigned to Apple to see to it that the project is completed
bamboozled
Because it’s an authoritarian dictatorship that forces people to do things to achieve its goals ?
mayama
> Because it’s an authoritarian dictatorship that forces people to do things to achieve its goals ?
That's just part of the puzzle. What makes CPC different from most dictatorships is like NK or SU is that most of ruling elite of CPC is made up of engineers. Along with mandatory CPC ideology leaning, they also have notion that a developed nation is one that builds things. Bankers and Lawyers are ranked way down on power rankings.
On the other hand, most of American ruling elite are lawyers or bankers. So their worldview is mostly rule lawyering, interest earning, hedge fund etc.. Power brokers in these fields make the rules. Builders and engineers rank pretty low in power totem pole.
mbs159
Them being forced to do things due to the dictatorship is not a compelling argument, as people are forced to do things in Western societies too, via other external factors like risk of poverty and hunger.
tekno45
didn't our president say they'd be a dictator on day one?
FranzFerdiNaN
It’s an authoritarian president that forces Apple to make these promises, even though they will most likely never fulfil them. It’s all just one big play to appease to Trumps love for big numbers.
MaxPock
project management and accountability are communist ideals .
pjc50
Well, yes, because it's a "state capitalism" hybrid regime. If your position is that US companies should have a shadow board member who gets to dictate company policy over the wishes of and at the expense of investors, people might reasonably call that .. communism.
benterix
They may call it that, but to be precise it would be just an aspect of a planned economy[0]. NB democracies use a similar mechanism but only via companies where the state has the majority of shares which is completely different.
Eddy_Viscosity2
> have a shadow board member who gets to dictate company policy
This will happen sooner than you think if the US continues on its current path. Already Trump is asking for something similar for universities. He can use the same hammer for companies as well; deny them all government funding/contracts until they 'voluntarily' give in.
The 'c' word for this is not communism, but corruption. The special thing about corruption is that it can happen in any political 'ism'.
presentation
Communism is a more specific term than that
teamweightloss
[flagged]
os2warpman
> that never amounted to anything
They did amount to something.
Those announcements were part of Apple's initiative to build/assemble certain Mac Pros in Texas.
The idea is to do it on a high-margin, low-volume product so that any hiccups can be absorbed in the accounting and aren't as impactful to millions of customers. Hiccups like a dearth of US suppliers of subcomponents.
If a North American customer purchases a Mac Pro its final assembly occurs in Austin, Texas.
According to local media and government reports Apple has spent over a billion dollars in Austin and directly employed about 10,000 new permanent workers so far.
If you count local suppliers, the total is higher.
You can see some of the billion dollars here: https://maps.app.goo.gl/dHy52bEoWizDC5qz5
You can click on "See more dates" and select 2020 to see that in two years that site went from "empty lot" to "hundreds of thousands of square feet and thousands of workers".
The Flextronics facility about a mile-and-a-half to the south is another chunk of cash.
Additionally, many, MANY, components from audio codecs to SoC cores to sheets of glass used in Apple products are made in the US and exported for integration into products that are assembled overseas.
If you think 5 years from announcement to construction is a long time, I've been working about that long on a committee to build a tiny 4-bay fire station. It isn't about money, we have the money and infinite money wouldn't really change anything. It's about permits, contractor availability, and subsystem/subcomponent lead times. The diesel fume extraction system installers had a year-long backlog of work alone.
If you're waiting for the iPhone to be built in the US, you're going to be waiting for a long time, perhaps an infinitely long time. Other, higher-margin lower-volume, products? That's more likely.
I'm more familiar than most with how difficult it is to build things in the US, because I build satellites for a living and fire stations as a civic duty.
It's hard.
stockresearcher
> The idea is to do it on a high-margin, low-volume product so that any hiccups can be absorbed in the accounting
As opposed to actually eliminating the source of the hiccups.
The Japanese auto manufacturers moved their high-volume, low-margin assembly to the US and succeeded. They started by importing nearly every component and then steadily replaced them with locally-built components.
If Apple was serious, that’s what they would have done. You know, like how they did it in India. Like how they did it in Malaysia. Like how they did it in Vietnam.
Apple’s not serious about US-based manufacturing until proven otherwise. Gold statues don’t prove anything.
nxobject
> The Japanese auto manufacturers moved their high-volume, low-margin assembly to the US and succeeded. They started by importing nearly every component and then steadily replaced them with locally-built components.
Ironically, Trump's "gotta show results _now!_" rhetoric might kneecap onshoring like this.
quickthrowman
> The diesel fume extraction system installers had a year-long backlog of work alone.
What kind of system are you installing? I’ve provided electrical and control wiring for exhaust hose reels at DOT maintenance facilities and bus garages in my local market, you only need a roofer, a mechanical contractor, and an electrician.
If it’s CO/NO sensors with makeup air units and exhaust fans, again that is just roofers, mechanical, and electrical, with widely available parts.
My guess is your fire station is at the ass end of nowhere which limits contractor availability or something along those lines? I’m used to my local metro area market of 3M people with dozens of mechanical, electrical, and commercial roofing contractors around to work with.
xnx
Excellent details. No disrespect to the long and difficult work of real-world projects.
I could've been more precise in my wording. Sometimes these announcements (from Apple and other companies) are realized into completed projects, but very often they are misleading/exaggerated claims about money that was already going to be spent, or could possibly be spent.
teamweightloss
Trump 2016 was taken less seriously by multinationals, as the anti-globalization wave hasn't fully realized, and corporation were paying lip service to Trump, which the 2016 administration had no choice but to accept it due to only having power in the executive branch.
Trump 2024 is a completely different animal, with control in all 3 branches of government, plus overwhelming voter support in the election. As well as the collapse of globalization (baby boomer retiring reducing demand), and many countries moving to the right at the same time. Reshoring is the correct choice for the next 10 years and beyond, and many multinationals recognize this and have committed hundreds of billions accordingly.
rayiner
Fair point. But one difference is that Trump 1.0 was still full of globalist neocons while Trump 2.0 is full of true believers. There is follow-through this time. We now have the highest tariffs since 1910, which was inconceivable a decade ago.
The landscape has also changed. In 2018, Apple could wait out Trump hoping to get the Bush GOP back. That party is dead. It will still be corporate friendly, but not on immigration or trade. Big Ag couldn’t even get carved out of the immigration raids. The Clinton Democratic Party is dead too. What’s the odds that either Vance 2028 or AOC 2028 are going to let Apple off the hook on commitments?
estearum
Why would that change anything? Apple already got the exemptions it wanted. If Trump changes his mind and comes back, they just need to give him another shiny object and a headline.
The tariffs themselves obviously do not have the requisite durability to justify actual high scale capex. It would be quite literally stupid to invest much in US manufacturing just to get undercut in either 1) a few months when courts rule the entire endeavor unconstitutional or 2) a few years when Trump is out of office.
rayiner
> Why would that change anything? Apple already got the exemptions it wanted. If Trump changes his mind and comes back, they just need to give him another shiny object and a headline.
Because before, the administration was staffed with Bushies who were happy to let things go when the boss lost interest. Now it’s staffed with people who would be happy to burn Apple down.
> The tariffs themselves obviously do not have the requisite durability to justify actual high scale capex… a few years when Trump is out of office. Trump is the moderate one.
When Trump leaves office in 2028, he’ll either be replaced with JD, or a progressive Democrat. The Bush GOP definitely isn’t coming back, and I suspect the Biden Democratic Party isn’t either. Cutting tariffs isn’t going to be a high priority of the incoming administration either way. And even Biden didn’t cut many of Trump’s tariffs from his first administration.
Buttons840
Let's appreciate that Tim Cook traveled to the White House to present President Trump with literal gold. Cook said it was "designed for you" when presenting it to Trump.
Top tier fidelity here, like in days of old, the Duke of Apple has traveled far to present King Trump with tribute.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/08/07/tim-...
jjulius
"Fidelity", or "fellating"?
insane_dreamer
> Today, Apple partners with thousands of suppliers across all 50 states, supporting more than 450,000 supplier and partner jobs. In the next four years, Apple plans to directly hire 20,000 people in the U.S. — the vast majority focused on R&D, silicon engineering, software development, and AI and machine learning.
So the new jobs they're creating _won't_ be in manufacturing.
Nice PR headline though.
assword
I’d wager about half of those roles are imported too.
njovin
I would love to see a list of commitments that corporations and foreign bodies have made to investment in the US, and how they've actually played out over time.
They made a similar commitment in 2018 [1] and 2021 [2], but I can't find any info about whether they actually followed through and whether the projected job numbers were accurate.
[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/17/apple-announces-350-billion-...
[2] https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/apple-announces-430-billio...
lelandfe
A memorable one was Foxconn https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/21/foxconn-mostly-abandons-10-b...
> Foxconn will reduce its planned investment to $672 million from $10 billion and cut the number of new jobs to 1,454 from 13,000
chrisco255
There's plenty of positive examples including TSMC in Arizona, Samsung in Texas, etc:
https://www.azfamily.com/2025/04/29/tsmc-breaks-ground-third...
https://pr.tsmc.com/english/news/3210
https://www.techtimes.com/articles/311514/20250728/tesla-tap...
mbs159
TSMC in Arizona flew in many people from Taiwan due to shortage in local labor
estearum
Neither TSMC in Arizona or Samsung in Texas were promises made to the Trump admin though. TSMC was announced in May 2020 (tail end of Trump 1) and Samsung was November 2021.
I don't think GP was saying "no one invests in the US," but rather that these particular announcements clearly designed to appease POTUS do not come to fruition.
TheAlchemist
I think we all know the answer to that.
Funniest one is Masayoshi Son announcements, in 2016 - $50B for 50k jobs, and in 2024 - $100B for 100k jobs !
2016: https://www.cnbc.com/2016/12/06/trump-says-softbank-will-inv...
2024: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/12/16/softbank-ceo-to-announce-100...
Funny thing here is, that he doesn't even have that money. But who cares these days...
blitzar
You gotta pump those numbers up. Those are rookie numbers in this racket.
I myself, $1T for 100 million jobs.
lokar
Does it matter? Even if nothing gets built both sides are getting what they want.
sgc
Yes, because the theater effectively deceives a large portion of the voting public. "Both sides" here are the least important players in the charade. It's everybody they are hosing I care about.
loeg
No large portion of the voting public is paying any attention to this.
pjc50
But that's what the voting public wants! They demand to be lied to. The feedback loop is problem announced on Fox news / Truth social -> presidential announcement -> positive coverage on Fox/Truth. It's not like the factory actually has to exist for them to be happy. And if they didn't want to be lied to they wouldn't seek out news sources which lie to them and leave them on in their homes constantly.
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Copenjin
THIS. I think making promises and not actually delivering completely has been a very common strategy (not judging) for many companies for some time.
archagon
Related: “Apple made a 24k gold and glass statue for Donald Trump”
https://www.theverge.com/news/737757/apple-president-donald-...
nxobject
Only Apple could make a classy ornament for such a tacky gilded-baroque office...
TheOtherHobbes
I appreciate how calibrated it is. It's literally empty, it's almost completely transparent, and the 24K gold base is worth far less than a millionth of Apple's annual profits.
Luckily the president doesn't know a metaphor when he sees one.
Arubis
In isolation, this might be a positive. But watching one of the world’s richest multinationals do this primarily in response to an autocratic, authoritarian regime is neither a good look nor what we should hope for as an example of how to influence corporate decisionmaking.
ericmcer
I agree that seeing the executive branch's authority continue to swell is not good for our democracy, but corporations (and specifically Apple) offshoring all their labor to developing nations has been viewed as a huge negative for ~30 years?
Any amount of returning manufacturing here, returning power to the middle class by increasing the demand for labor and stopping the exploitation of foreign workers is a good thing. I can't stand listening to him talk, but if iPhones aren't reliant on slaves mining cobalt and 13 year olds working 12 hours a days I will consider that a win.
rTX5CMRXIfFG
> Any amount of returning manufacturing here, returning power to the middle class by increasing the demand for labor and stopping the exploitation of foreign workers is a good thing.
I don’t think Americans realize that we haven’t suffered a global war since 1945 precisely because global trade took over and nations’ economies became more interdependent than isolated.
These trade wars are signalling pretty much all countries in the world to become more self-sustaining and less dependent on each other. Countries who succeed will be more confident to enter armed conflict because they’ll have less to lose, and those with lots to gain will have every incentive to start or join a war against those who have resources.
TheOtherHobbes
Nothing works without trade now. Literally nothing.
Countries have aligned themselves to maximise Ricardian comparative advantage, and there's no way for the global economy to realign itself towards plain old mercantilism without massive pain for everyone.
murukesh_s
I think iPhones can take a good bump in the pricing for bringing the manufacturing onshore. Currently an iPhone is 30% more expensive in developing countries like India compared to US, Dubai or even Japan. Thats insane, and still an average adult is looking forward to own one. That is 50% of your annual income you have to spend for buying an arguably, state of the art mobile phone. If you are in US, an iPhone is only approximately 1% of your annual per capita income. Thats massive difference..
seanmcdirmid
iPhones are more expensive in developing countries due to developing country taxes and tariffs. China used to be the same way (iPhones are imported into China because they are made in SEZs), but has a price that is comparable to the USA now mainly due to china’s push for more consumption by Chinese consumers. iPhone prices are high in India simply because the government would rather Indian consumers not spend money on them, not because the Indian government thinks they can afford it.
The USA is sort of addicted to consumption (where China wants to be actually), you could dissuade a lot of consumption by raising taxes on it (if, for example, you want people to save more and focus only on necessities). It would be a huge change for America though, the market might not survive intact if it happens too quickly.
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jemmyw
I mean, it's not going to fix the cobalt mining problem.
bsder
> In isolation, this might be a positive. But watching one of the world’s richest multinationals do this primarily in response to an autocratic, authoritarian regime is neither a good look nor what we should hope for as an example of how to influence corporate decisionmaking.
Ironically, your comment is double-bladed.
This has likely been in the works from when China shook Apple down and the timing has a nice upside that it also pacifies His Orangeness(tm).
chrisco255
An American president using the bully pulpit (as Teddy Roosevelt so fondly called it) to expand jobs and investment in America is the president doing his actual job.
Of course Apple didn't do it on their own accord, there was way too much profit to be made from outsourcing to China. Everyone else was doing it, why not also the richest company on earth?
FranzFerdiNaN
I’m sure Americans are just dying for jobs like screwing iPhones together all day, or standing in a field under the burning sun harvesting tomatoes.
chrisco255
You mean manufacturing and farming jobs? Absolutely, they're decent jobs and far more rewarding than serving diabetes to McDonald's and Starbucks patrons.
Tomato harvesting is done in an air conditioned tractor these days:
https://m.youtube.com/shorts/pDxZhOw9IH4
https://youtu.be/l4Dc6QNWiIs?si=S9qrFNpUBM5KuSrx
Production on iPhone can be highly automated these days as well. There are plenty of good examples of revitalized computer hardware manufacturing in the U.S. like the Starlink Factory in Bastrop, TX:
https://youtu.be/qz0k4wj_KlA?si=qUqJ0DWTRpHa4cgY
or the TSMC factory in Arizona, which has similar amenities to many software offices:
ImJamal
Instead we should just give it to brown people and pay them minimum wage or less than in other countries.
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mensetmanusman
It’s surprising to see this done by the right, the left is supposed to strong arm corporations to do things.
tootie
Cook is getting significant considerations on imports and offering Trump PR with zero obligation. Maybe they invest, maybe they don't, maybe they just do what they were going to do anyway.
ocdtrekkie
They only have to look like they're working on this for the next three and a half years.
chrisco255
Then they'll pay import tariffs on the foreign components. And they'll increase their supply chain risk (as well as regulatory risk) in a polarized political climate.
seanmcdirmid
Trump is only in office for 3 and a half years. Spending $600b will take much longer time than that. Assuming america remains democratic, the next president is very likely to wash away most of what Trump has done on day one (since he did all of this via executive order).
realusername
Either the American market will collapse or they will pay those fées anyways
WarOnPrivacy
> But when ... the world’s richest multinationals do this primarily in response to an autocratic, authoritarian regime ...
...it gifts authoritarian power to autocrats and fully guarantees more authoritarian behavior.
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insane_dreamer
Anyone remember the $10B Foxconn factory in WI?
And Intel's $28B factory in OH?
PR (and golden gifts (bribes?)) is easy.
LatteLazy
I feel like this is just harmless PR no?
People have pointed out that brands all put rainbows on their public docs for pride month. But not in Islamic countries and much less with Trump in power etc.
This is just the same effect but for US nationalists no?
Actual decisions and spending/investment etc will continue to be driven by economics. But PR is about who you want to reassure/appease/curry favour with. And the two are basically independent.
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energy123
Onshoring chip manufacturing - good
Onshoring assembly of consumer electronics despite low unemployment - bad
It's good the correct subset of manufacturing is being onshored.
palmotea
> Onshoring assembly of consumer electronics despite low unemployment - bad
Why? Especially considering military systems are looking increasingly like masses of consumer electronics (e.g. FPV drones).
energy123
If the US is willing to import many more low-skilled workers, then I would agree it's a great idea. Absent that, with a 4% unemployment, then the pigeon hole principle makes it difficult. Open to proposals about how it could be done without significant downside.
palmotea
> Open to proposals about how it could be done without significant downside.
That's a policy straitjacket: a demand that strategic and necessary things can be done only if there's no downside for some privileged group.
If the US doesn't want to be a weak-ass paper tiger, it needs the capability to mass-produce consumer electronics (a civilian capability that can be redirected for military purposes, if needed). That will likely require trade offs.
Let's employ fewer people in the sandwich-assembly industry and more people assembling electronics.
aleph_minus_one
> If the US is willing to import many more low-skilled workers, then I would agree it's a great idea.
Bring back slavery to the USA. :-)
typ
Downstream assembly factories attract component manufacturers because of lower transport costs and shorter delivery times, which can lead to network effects. (Remember why Intel wanted to build more foundries in China a few years ago?) That's the success formula of Shenzhen, for example.
Jyaif
Trump encouraging companies to move engineering outside of the US, and manufacturing inside of the US. Truly a genius.
There have been many of these announcements that never amounted to anything:
2017: "Apple promised to give US manufacturing a $1 billion boost"
2018: "Apple will make $350 billion contribution to U.S. economy and promised to create 20,000 jobs"
2021: "Apple commits $430 billion in US investments over 5 years"
From https://bsky.app/profile/bgrueskin.bsky.social/post/3lvqqyd4...