Apple is set to move some of its Mac Mini production to the U.S. as part of the company’s ongoing efforts to ease the Trump administration’s push for domestic investment. Production is scheduled to begin later this year in North Houston, Texas, at the Foxconn factory where Apple’s AI servers are currently being assembled.
“Apple is deeply committed to the future of American manufacturing, and we are proud to significantly expand our footprint in Houston with Mac Mini production beginning later this year,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in the announcement. “We have begun shipping advanced AI servers from Houston ahead of schedule and are excited to accelerate this work even further.”
The development is part of Apple’s plans to invest $600 billion in the US over the next four years, a commitment it made after President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 25 percent tariff on products Apple makes overseas. However, most of this $600 billion is not tied to expanding domestic production.
In an interview with The Wall Street JournalApple chief operating officer Sabih Khan said the goal is to expand U.S. production of the Mac Mini to meet local demand, but the company will continue to make thousands of desktop computers in Asia. Apple began making some of its Mac Pro computers in Austin, Texas, in 2013, but Khan notes that production at the facility has since dwindled due to low demand.
While the Mac Mini is Apple’s most affordable desktop computer, it accounts for less than 1 percent of the company’s total sales and less than 5 percent of worldwide Mac sales, according to Consumer Intelligence Research Partners estimates. Khan said Apple is optimistic about expanding Mac Mini production to Houston because demand is higher and more reliable compared to the Mac Pro. Both are just a fraction of the 240 million iPhones sold by the company each year, and Apple currently has no plans to move iPhone production from Asia to the US.