Apple To Shift US iPhone Assembly To India by 2026

Apple plans to relocate all US-bound iPhone assembly to India by 2026, aiming to reduce its reliance on Chinese manufacturing.

Apple plans to move the assembly of all iPhones sold in the US to India by the end of 2026, aiming to reduce its reliance on China as trade tensions escalate. Currently, about 80% of the 60 million iPhones sold yearly in the US are made in China, as reported by Reuters.

Apple is urgently working with its Indian partners, Foxconn and Tata Group, to speed up the shift, reports Reuters. The Financial Times first reported the move, which comes as the tech giant faces rising tariffs on Chinese imports under Donald Trump’s trade policies.

Apple has already expanded in India, shipping $2 billion worth of iPhones to the US in March alone — a record for both Tata and Foxconn. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s efforts to boost smartphone manufacturing have helped, including cutting import taxes on some mobile parts, as previously reported by Aljazeera.

“If you’re charging import tax for intermediary goods, then you cannot actually be competitive versus somebody who does not. Their objective is to be as competitive as they can be to become the leading manufacturing hub,” said Babak Hafezi, CEO of Hafezi Capital, as reported more recently by Aljazeera.

Still, making iPhones in India is 5-8% more expensive than in China. “India will help, but it’s not moving the needle on China’s dependence for Apple. It will take years to make this move, as Apple is caught in the tariff storm,” told to Aljazeera Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities.

Aljazeera reports that despite the challenges, Apple’s assembly of iPhones in India has already grown by 60% over the past year, reaching around $22 billion in value. Yet, only about 20% of the world’s iPhones are currently made in India.