How Tim Cook convinced Trump to drop made-in-USA iPhone — for now

CNBC

2 days ago

President Donald Trump has made clear that he wants Apple to make iPhones in the U.S.
Apple CEO Tim Cook is doing what he can to appease the commander in chief, without making that ultimate concession.
Cook on Wednesday appeared at the White House with President Trump to announce plans to spend about $600 billion over four years in the U.S. Apple didn't announce the made-in-USA iPhone that Trump wants, but Cook got to tout Apple's position on U.S. production.
Some of Apple's most valuable parts, such as its glass and facial recognition sensor, are made by U.S. companies that Apple has worked with for years. Final assembly is only a small, though very critical, part of iPhone production.
"The final assembly that you focus on, that will be elsewhere for a while," Cook said Wednesday in the Oval Office.
Trump appeared happy enough, for now.
"He makes many of the components here, and we've been talking about it," Trump said. "The whole thing is set up in other places, and it's been there for a long time in terms of cost and all, but I think we may incentivize him enough that one day he'll be bringing that back."
Experts said Cook's announcement seemed designed to get Apple out of Trump's crosshairs with respect to tariffs. Trump announced during the public meeting that the administration planned to place a tariff on chips that would double their price, but Apple — which relies on hundreds of different chips for its devices — would be exempt.
"CEOs are realizing that they do have to do something, and what they've discovered is that if they give the president something to brag about without destroying their company, that the problem might go away for a certain amount of time," said Peter Cohan, professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at Babson College who has written case studies on Apple.
The gambit worked. Apple stock rose 5% on Wednesday and another 3% on Thursday.
"What Tim Cook demonstrated in the first administration was a real savvy navigation of the treacherous waters," said Nancy Tengler, CEO of Laffer Tengler Investments, which holds a position in Apple. "I thought this announcement was super-important symbolically, because the president is looking for headlines."
The centerpiece of Apple's announcement was the so-called American Manufacturing Program, which Apple said was designed to incentivize other companies to make parts for computers in the U.S.
By Apple committing to purchase parts and expand its relationship with U.S. suppliers, it could give those companies the skills and capacity to expand their business. And it lets Apple take some credit for supporting the 450,000 total jobs at its suppliers.
A closer look at the members of the program shows that Apple is leaning on some of its longest-tenured partners. All together, Apple said that its U.S. suppliers are on track to make 19 billion chips for its products this year. That level of business doesn't appear overnight.
For example, Apple said that all of its cover glass for iPhones and Apple Watches would be made by Corning, in Kentucky, and that it would spend $2.5 billion on that effort. It's a powerful symbol — while the phone might be screwed together in China or India, the surface that users touch around the world will be made in the U.S.
But Apple has pointed to Corning as a critical American supplier in the past. The company's glass has been used on the iPhone since its first version in 2007. While Apple typically doesn't let its suppliers talk about their relationships, former COO Jeff Williams hailed Corning's glass in 2017, when it got an "investment" from the Apple Advanced Manufacturing Fund. Apple followed that up with a $250 million commitment in 2019, and $45 million in 2021.
Analysts are skeptical that the partnership could substantially improve Corning's revenue. Morgan Stanley analysts wrote on Thursday that Corning "already produces 100% of the cover glass for Apple's phones and tablets," adding that Corning's glass business called Specialty Materials is worth about $2 billion per year.
Apple also highlighted its partnership with Coherent, a longtime supplier of lasers for Apple's facial recognition hardware, which is made in Texas. Morgan Stanley pegged the business at about $100 million per year, and said Apple has options including Lumentum and Sony.
The iPhone maker said it expanded a partnership with Texas Instruments to make chips in Texas and Utah. Texas Instruments has long supplied chips for the iPhone, such as circuits to control USB interfaces or power displays. Apple said it would partner with Samsung, another key supplier of parts like iPhone displays, to launch an "innovative new technology for making chips," without offering additional details.
Apple declared that it will partner directly with companies in the semiconductor chain, even if they typically sell services or goods to Apple suppliers. Other partnerships are with Applied Materials, a tooling company, GlobalFoundries, a chip foundry, and GlobalWafers America, which is suppling Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Texas Instruments with made-in-USA wafers, the starting point for a batch of chips.
GlobalFoundries manufactures chips for Broadcom, which supplies wireless chips for iPhones. Both will work with Apple to develop and manufacture 5G components in the U.S.
Meanwhile, Apple will buy millions of advanced chips made by TSMC in Arizona, where it will be the factory's largest customer. Cook joined former President Biden at the plant in 2022 and committed to buying chips from the factory.
Apple said it would invest in and become a customer at an Arizona Amkor facility, which packages and tests chips, the final stage before installation in a computer.
Apple also said it would expand existing data centers for artificial intelligence in North Carolina, Iowa, Nevada and Oregon. It's highlighted these data centers in the past in spending commitments.
While Apple's announcement sent partner stocks up, JPMorgan Chase analysts warned in a note on Thursday that "the new and expanded engagements might not be completely incremental to global revenues and outlook."
Trump had a different take.
"Oh, I love that you're doing this," the president said, after reading a list of Apple's commitments.
Apple has little to worry about when it comes to who will hold the company accountable for its promises. The company doesn't break out U.S. spending, and most of Apple's suppliers are contractually required to keep the information secret. Apple doesn't report how much its new campuses in Austin or North Carolina end up costing.
Additionally, the $600 billion headline number likely includes lots of regular expenses.
Apple said in February that its $500 billion commitment included payments to U.S. suppliers, direct employment, data centers for Apple Intelligence and corporate facilities, as well as spending on Apple TV+ productions in 20 states.
Apple started publicly announcing U.S. spending during Trump's first administration in 2018, at a rate of about $70 billion per year. In February, the company committed to $125 billion per year. Wednesday's announcement brings that figure to $150 billion annually.
That's still a fraction of Apple's total spending.
In Apple's fiscal 2024, Apple spent $210 billion globally on cost of goods sold, $57.5 billion on operating expenses, and $9.45 billion in capital expenditures for nearly $275 billion in global spending during the period.
Teffler said she didn't think the newly announced spending would be material to Apple's profitability, especially since it already has relationships with the various companies such as Corning.
"They're going to spend money somewhere," Tegler said.
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, who previously predicted a made-in-USA iPhone would cost billions to produce and would leave consumers paying $3,500, said the Wednesday announcements indicate a much different approach. He said it's "the cost of doing business."