On February 24, Apple announced that it would invest $500 billion in the U.S. over the next four years, including a massive facility in Texas for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. The investment is also expected to create approximately 20,000 jobs in research and development across the country.

This projected $500 billion expenditure will cover a wide range of activities, from purchasing from U.S. suppliers to producing TV shows and movies for Apple TV+.

Apple declined to specify how much of the investment would be allocated to U.S. suppliers, including Corning, the Kentucky-based company that manufactures glass for iPhones.

Apple's Investment Comes After Tim Cook’s Meeting with Trump

This move follows reports that Apple CEO Tim Cook met with former U.S. President Donald Trump last week. Many Apple products assembled in China could face a 10% tariff imposed by Trump earlier this month, although the company had received exemptions from some tariffs during Trump’s first term.

Apple had made a similar announcement in 2018, stating that new and ongoing investments would contribute $350 billion to the U.S. economy over five years.

Apple's stock saw a slight decline in pre-market trading on February 24.

On the same day, Trump expressed his gratitude to Apple and Tim Cook in a post on Truth Social, stating that the move reflected the company’s confidence in his administration.

Apple's U.S. Manufacturing Expansion

Most of Apple’s consumer products are assembled outside the U.S., although many components are still manufactured domestically, including chips from Broadcom, SkyWorks Solutions, and Qorvo.

In January, Apple announced that it had begun mass-producing its own custom-designed chips at a factory in Arizona, owned by Taiwan-based TSMC, the world’s leading contract chip manufacturer.

Bringing TSMC to Arizona and supporting the CHIPS Act, which aims to strengthen the U.S. semiconductor manufacturing industry, were two of Trump’s major industrial policies during his first term.

On February 24, Apple also announced a partnership with Taiwan’s Foxconn to build a 5.74-acre facility in Houston, Texas. This facility will assemble servers for Apple’s data centers to support Apple Intelligence, the company’s new AI-powered features. Currently, these servers are manufactured outside the U.S., Apple stated.

Foxconn is the world’s largest electronics contract manufacturer and Apple’s primary iPhone assembler.

Apple also announced an increase in its Advanced Manufacturing Fund from $5 billion to $10 billion, with a portion of the funds dedicated to a multi-billion-dollar commitment to manufacturing advanced silicon at TSMC’s Arizona plant.

The Advanced Manufacturing Fund, launched by Apple to invest in U.S. manufacturing and technology, aims to drive innovation, support domestic suppliers, create jobs, and strengthen the local supply chain.

Apple initially introduced the fund in 2017 with $1 billion, later expanding it to $5 billion, and now plans to increase it to $10 billion. The company has used the fund to support partners such as Corning and Finisar, which produces lasers for Face ID. Recently, Apple also pledged part of the fund toward advanced silicon production at TSMC’s Arizona plant.

Apple has not disclosed specific details about its agreement with TSMC, but in the past, the fund has been used to help partners develop necessary infrastructure for supplying products or services to the company.

Additionally, Apple will open a manufacturing academy in Michigan, where Apple engineers and faculty from local universities will offer free courses to small and medium-sized manufacturing businesses on topics such as project management and production process optimization.

Apple Continues to Invest Heavily in China

Outside the U.S., Apple continues to invest heavily in China, the world's largest smartphone market.

In early January, Apple established a new data processing joint venture in Shanghai, as the tech giant seeks to bring AI services to iPhones in mainland China—though its efforts remain uncertain.

Founded on January 10 with a registered capital of $35 million, Apple Technology Development (Shanghai) will focus on software development, big data services, cloud storage, and data processing, according to the Chinese business registry Tianyancha.

Tejas Kirit Gala, who leads several Apple divisions in China, is listed as the legal representative of the new company, which is fully owned by Apple South Asia, according to Tianyancha.

In October 2024, Apple opened an applied research lab in Shenzhen, the technology hub in southern China, reinforcing its commitment to the crucial foreign market amid increasing competition from local companies.

Apple’s research center in Shenzhen officially began operations on October 10, 2024, at Hetao Shenzhen Park. Hetao is a collaboration zone developed under China’s government directives to enhance technological partnerships between Shenzhen and neighboring Hong Kong, according to People’s Daily.

In March 2024, Apple announced plans to build a new laboratory in Shenzhen to boost research and testing capabilities for key products, including iPhones, iPads, and Vision Pro mixed-reality headsets. The facility will also strengthen collaboration between Apple and its local suppliers.

The first phase of the new facility spans 4.94 acres, making it a major research and development hub for Apple in the Greater Bay Area.

The Greater Bay Area is an economic and business hub comprising Hong Kong, Macau, and nine cities in Guangdong Province (Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan, Huizhou, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Jiangmen, and Zhaoqing).

Apple's new facility in Shenzhen will employ more than 1,000 talents from both China and abroad, making it the company’s largest research lab outside the U.S.

Despite recent efforts to diversify its supply chain beyond China, Cupertino-based Apple continues to increase research investments in the country. The Greater China region (mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan) remains Apple’s largest market after the Americas and Europe.

In March 2024, Apple announced the establishment of research centers in Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou, and Shenzhen. The company also revealed that its research and development team in China had doubled in size over the past five years.

Apple Faces Growing Competition in China

Apple is facing intensified competition in China’s smartphone market, where Shenzhen-based Huawei has experienced a resurgence in its mobile business.

In Q4 2024, Apple’s iPhone sales in China fell to $18.51 billion, compared to $20.82 billion in the same period a year earlier. The figure also came in lower than the $21.33 billion estimated by a Visible Alpha survey of five analysts.