Apple Is Investing in the US — but It’s Not the Story Trump Is Telling

At a White House event on Wednesday afternoon, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced plans to invest $100 billion in US manufacturing.

Is this a real plan, with real money? A bit of stagecraft designed to give Donald Trump a public win for his reshoring push? Or a way for Apple to keep on the right side of Trump tariffs that could cause great harm to the company?

Yes. And yes. And yes.

Some context:

But this isn’t the first time Apple has announced a pledge like this. In 2021 — when Joe Biden was president — it announced a plan to invest $430 billion in the US over five years and hire 20,000 employees. Some of those plans involved new construction, like a new “engineering hub” in North Carolina. Others involved expansions of existing facilities, or construction that was already underway, like a $1 billion campus in Austin.

As Bloomberg notes, Apple’s announcement from February was really an acceleration of its earlier plans — it meant Apple was planning to spend an extra $39 billion a year, and to increase its hiring plans by 1,000 people a year.

Using that same logic, Apple’s Wednesday announcement means it is planning on spending another $25 billion a year above its earlier plans. (No word, yet, about any additional hiring, though Apple did say its work with Corning would increase the workforce there by 50%.)

So that’s definitely some additional spending.

Will Apple make iPhones in the US?

Does that mean Apple is going to start making iPhones in the US, as Trump has demanded?

No. As we’ve discussed before, recreating the supply chain Apple would need to make iPhones in the US seems close to impossible. And certainly not something that Apple could pull off in a few years — if it even wanted to.

Cook was asked that question directly at the press conference, and was ready for it. “There’s a lot of content in there from the United States,” he argued, pointing to the glass deal and other elements made at least in part in America. But as far as actually putting that stuff together — which requires a complicated supply chain Cook spent years and billions overseeing? “That will be elsewhere for a while,” he said.

Still, getting to stand next to the CEO of one of the world’s most valuable companies, while that CEO says he’s going to invest in America, is most definitely valuable to Trump, who was beaming throughout the event.

And it’s not as if any particular number means much to Trump, who recently announced he was going to reduce drug prices by “1,500 percent,” which is definitely not possible.

Trump is also flexible when it comes to announcements about Trump-directed spending in America. Like when he stood next to Cook during his first term and announced that Apple had opened a new plant in Texas at his behest. Also not true.

What does Apple get in return? It would most obviously like permanent relief from Trump’s tariffs. So far, Trump has granted Apple some immunity from some of his tariffs on foreign manufacturing — but not all of them, which is why Apple has said it will have paid some $2 billion in tariffs over its last two quarters.

Apple and other tech companies are also hoping Trump will keep pushing on their behalf to beat down other countries’ tech regulations. Apple is particularly vexed by the European Union, which has forced the company to do things like change its iPhone chargers and open up its App Store.

So yes: Apple is spending money in the US. And no: It’s not exactly the story Donald Trump would like to tell.