Not Interested In You Building In India: Trump To Apple CEO

Escalating the ongoing tariff war, US President Donald Trump has asked Apple CEO Tim Cook to stop building manufacturing plants in India.

“We are not interested in you building in India. India can take care of themselves”, Trump said he told Cook at an event in Qatar, as per Bloomberg. 

The US president said he discouraged Apple’s CEO from manufacturing in India as it is “one of the highest-tariff nations in the world”. 

“I had a little problem with Tim Cook yesterday. I said to him, my friend, I am treating you very good. You are coming up with $500 Bn but now I hear you are building all over India. I don’t want you building in India … because India is one of the highest tariff nations in the world so it is very hard to sell in India,” the US president said.

Trump’s comments come a day after India’s cabinet approved a semiconductor plant, a joint venture between the HCL Group and Apple’s main supplier Foxconn, at the cost of around $435 Mn.

At the same time, Apple has been ramping up efforts to shift a large part of its production away from China to India and other countries to protect the company from the fallout of the geopolitical tensions between Washington and Beijing. 

In its Q2 2025 earnings call held on May 1, Apple said it is shifting most of its iPhone production to India from China, while Vietnam would become a hub for the production of its other devices such as iPads and Apple watches.

In the fiscal year ended March 2025 (FY25), Apple assembled iPhones worth $22 Bn in India, marking a 60% year-on-year increase. Of the total India production, the company exported $17.4 Bn worth of iPhones from the country during the fiscal.

As per brokerage firm Bernstein, India could account for about 15-20% of total iPhone production by the end of 2025.

Warning Or A Bluff?

It is to be noted that India and the US are currently in talks to negotiate a trade agreement. Last month, Trump slapped a reciprocal tariff of up to 27% on Indian goods before placing a 90-day pause on higher tariffs.

The US president also said today that India has offered to drop all tariffs on goods imported from the US. “They (India) have offered us a deal where basically they have agreed to charge us literally no tariffs.”

While the trade deal has not been finalised yet, Trump’s remarks are being viewed by many as a negotiation tactic to gain an upper hand in the ongoing negotiations.

“Think people! Think. He is negotiating a trade deal with us. And he is using these tantrums as a pressure tactic to make the authorities that represent us bend more. He wants to extract more and more out of the Indian markets via that trade deal, and is thus using building pressure,” wrote one user on LinkedIn.

Trump’s comments also come days after the US and China agreed to a 90-day pause in the ongoing tariff war. Following this, the US has cut the duties on Chinese imports to 30% and China has reduced the import duties on US goods to 10%.

It is not clear yet if this signals a change in the policy of the Trump administration or if it is just a temporary halt before the hostilities begin again. One of the objectives of the Trump administration with the tariff war was to bring back manufacturing to the US.

Despite making efforts to diversify its manufacturing base beyond China, Apple currently relies heavily on India’s northern neighbour for iPhone production. Apple CEO Cook, and its late cofounder Steve Jobs, have said multiple times that iPhone manufacturing in the US faces several obstacles, including lack of skilled workers and inadequate supply chain infrastructure.

Now, Trump expressing worry about India production has raised questions over Apple’s India manufacturing plans.

Apple’s India Push 

Over the past two years, India has emerged as a key manufacturing destination for Apple. While the company began assembling iPhones in India in 2017, it doubled down on the country following the supply chain disruptions during Covid and the emergence of China+1 policy amid geopolitical tensions.

Currently, one out of every five, or 20% of all iPhones sold across the world, is made in India. Apple assembles its entire line of iPhones in the country, including 16e, Pro and Pro Max. 

To boost the company’s sales in the country, Apple opened two retail stores in Delhi and Mumbai in 2023 and is now planning to open four more retail stores in Bengaluru, Pune, Delhi NCR, and Mumbai. 

Apple has three iPhone assembly plants in India – two in Tamil Nadu and one in Karnataka. A bulk of Apple’s India-made phones are assembled in Foxconn’s plant in Tamil Nadu. Apple’s other two contract manufacturers in India, Wistron and Pegatron, have been acquired by the Tata Group, which is also a key supplier.

Reports doing the rounds earlier this year also suggested that India is set to get two more iPhone manufacturing plants soon — one from Tata Electronics and another from Foxconn.

Along with this, the iPhone maker is also looking to build an ecosystem for its contract manufacturing stack. In February, it was reported that Japanese iPhone components manufacturer Murata Manufacturing is considering shifting some of its production capacity to India. Besides, Apple was said to be in talks with several Indian companies to grow its supplier network in the country.

The company was also looking to procure ‘Made in India’ chips as India’s semiconductor ecosystem continues to grow.

After Trump’s latest salvo, it remains to be seen if Apple chooses to move ahead as per its plans or decides to tread carefully. A change in plans by the US-based company may also potentially slow down the momentum of the Indian electronics manufacturing sector, especially smartphones, which has grown at a rapid pace over the past few years.

[Edited By Vinaykumar Rai]