Apple is trying to bring more manufacturing back to the United States, including chip foundry and Mac mini assembly, but the overall pace of progress is still slow. The pressure to manufacture in the United States continues to increase. Even though Apple claims to have invested up to 600 billion US dollars in related investments in the United States, compared with the scale of its global supply chain, the current production capacity in the United States is still very limited.
The Wall Street Journal recently gained access to a number of U.S.-related facilities to learn how Apple is trying to "re-localize" parts of its supply chain. Executives such as Apple COO Sabih Khan also visited TSMC's Arizona factory, Foxconn's Houston factory and other bases. The report reiterated a number of previously disclosed information, including: TSMC's approximately 1,100-acre factory in Arizona will produce 4-nanometer and 5-nanometer process chips. It is expected to take up to ten years to build and operate six factories to reach the current monthly production capacity of 100,000 wafers at TSMC's Taiwan factory.
However, this Arizona project, with a cost of US$165 billion, has lagged behind Taiwan's headquarters in terms of technology from the beginning of production. According to the plan, by 2030, the factory will be able to produce 2-nanometer chips roughly equivalent to those of today's TSMC Taiwan factory, but by then the Taiwan headquarters is expected to have reached several new levels in technology.
In Houston, Texas, the reporter visited a Foxconn factory. The factory currently mainly produces artificial intelligence servers and can offline about 10 units per hour to support Apple's "private cloud computing" service. The same factory is also being renovated and will assume the task of assembling Mac minis in the future. The initial output will be relatively limited, but the goal is to gradually cover all the demand for Mac minis in the US market.
In terms of sales, Mac mini is not at the same level as the iPhone. Reports estimate that Apple’s annual global Mac mini sales are about 1 million units, which is far lower than the shipment scale of the iPhone. Because of this, the Mac mini is seen as a product suitable for small-scale local production in the United States, but this does not shake the focus of Apple's overall manufacturing landscape.
After decades of shifting its manufacturing focus to China, Apple is now trying to bring some of its business back to the United States. However, it is considered unrealistic to actually move a significant proportion of production back to the United States. It can even be said to be "almost impossible." Therefore, Apple aims to diversify its supply chain and spread risks in different countries and regions.
At present, these investments and attempts in the United States have alleviated the policy pressure on Apple from the current U.S. government to a certain extent. Apple has obtained partial tariff exemptions and has been less directly scrutinized at the regulatory level. However, the company is still not completely immune to broader tariffs and industrial policy changes. It is expected to pay an additional cost of approximately US$14 billion due to tariffs in the 2025 holiday quarter. The industry background still reminds the fragility and complexity of the entire technology manufacturing industry.