Apple to invest additional $100B in US manufacturing: Trump

(Agencies): Apple CEO Tim Cook joined U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on Wednesday to announce a $100 billion boost in U.S. manufacturing investment, as Trump unveiled a 100% tariff on computer chips, a move expected to raise prices on key digital-age products.

“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,” 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 Program, 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. Trump in recent months has criticized the tech company and 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, Trump said there was “a little problem” with the Cupertino, California, company and recalled a conversation with Cook in which he said he told the CEO, “I don’t want you building in India.”

India has incurred Trump’s wrath, as the president signed an order 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, Cook emphasized that “there’s 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 productions of other components in its home country.

“We’re doing more in this country, and that’s on top of having roughly 19 billion chips coming out of the US now, and we will do more,” Cook told analysts last week, without elaborating.

News of Apple’s latest investment in the U.S. caused the company’s stock price to surge by 5% 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.

Trump also said that he will impose a 100% tariff on computer chips, likely raising the cost of electronics, autos, household appliances and other goods deemed essential for the digital age.

“We’ll be putting a tariff on of approximately 100% on chips and semiconductors,” Trump said in the Oval Office while meeting with Apple CEO Tim Cook. “But if you’re building in the United States of America, there’s no charge.”

The Republican president said companies that make computer chips in the U.S. would be spared the import tax. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a shortage of computer chips increased the price of autos and contributed to an overall uptick in inflation.

Inquiries sent to chip makers Nvidia and Intel were not immediately answered.

Demand for computer chips has been climbing worldwide, with sales increasing 19.6% in the year-ended in June, according to the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics organization.

Trump’s tariff threats mark a significant break from existing plans to revive computer chip production in the United States. He is choosing an approach that favors the proverbial stick over carrots in order to incentivize more production. Essentially, the president is betting that higher chip costs would force most companies to open factories domestically, despite the risk that tariffs could squeeze corporate profits and push up prices for mobile phones, TVs and refrigerators.

By contrast, the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act signed into law in 2022 by then-President Joe Biden provided more than $50 billion to support new computer chip plants, fund research and train workers for the industry. The mix of funding support, tax credits and other financial incentives was meant to draw in private investment, a strategy that Trump has vocally opposed.