Apple CEO Tim Cook gifted President Donald Trump a plaque made of glass manufactured in Corning’s facility in Harrodsburg, Kentucky – glass that Cook announced will soon be the cover glass on all new iPhones and Apple Watches. Read more at the link:

Apple is investing another $100 billion to expand its operations in the United States, the company announced on Wednesday, as President Donald Trump said he would levy a large import tax on chips coming into the country.

Apple’s investment comes after the tech giant already committed $500 billion to growing its domestic footprint earlier this year as tariffs levied by Trump on US trading partners have cost Apple billions. The new effort involves expanding Apple’s relationship with its key domestic suppliers as Trump pressures Apple and other tech giants to shift production to the US.

At an Oval Office event to celebrate the investment, Trump doubled down on his tariff strategy by threatening 100% levies on semiconductors and chips made internationally. But he said that companies that have “committed” to building in the US would not face a charge. He did not say when a formal announcement of chip tariffs would come or when such tariffs might take effect.

Office. “But he also asked us to think about what more we could commit to doing, and Mr. President we took that challenge very seriously.”

But Cook acknowledged that an iPhone that’s fully assembled in the United States is still far out despite Trump’s push. Instead, the company is focusing on manufacturing iPhone components stateside, an approach Trump seems content with for now.

Look, he’s not making this kind of an investment anywhere in the world, not even close,” Trump said. He’s coming back. I mean, Apple is coming back to America.”

Apple’s $100 billion investment

The new investment will include the launch of an American Manufacturing Program aimed at moving more of Apple’s supply chain to the United States. Apple suppliers such as Corning, Coherent, GlobalWafers America, Applied Materials, Texas Instruments, Samsung and Broadcom will be among the first partners participating in the program.

Apple intends to create a supply chain for its chips in the US through the program, saying that it expects to produce more than 19 billion chips for its products in 2025. The chips will be made in 24 factories across 12 states.

I’m proud to say that Apple is leading the creation of an end to end silicon supply chain right here in America, from design to equipment to wafer production to fabrication to packaging,” Cook said during the event.

Apple is also significantly broadening its partnership with glass supplier Corning in an ambitious expansion that will see “every iPhone and Apple Watch sold around the world” built with cover glass from Kentucky.

During the Oval Office event, Cook presented Trump with glass made from the Kentucky facility.

Apple is also deepening its relationship with Coherent, which supplies the lasers that power the iPhone’s Face ID facial recognition tool.

Trump’s push for US tech manufacturing

The Trump administration has been pushing for Apple and other tech giants to produce their products in the United States rather than rely on assembly facilities and supply chain operations largely located in China, India and Vietnam.

As you know, Apple has been an investor in other countries a little bit, I won’t say which ones, but a couple,” Trump said during the event.

Trump positioned Apple’s Wednesday announcement as another step toward building iPhones in the US. But experts have said doing so would be challenging because of a lack of a skilled technical workforce, and higher labor costs. Many of Apple’s key suppliers are located in Asia, meaning assembling products in the US would require shipping parts across the world.

Cook said on Wednesday that iPhones will be assembled elsewhere for “a while” but noted that many key iPhone components are going to be made in America.

“Well, if you look at the bulk of it, we’re doing a lot of the semiconductors here, we’re doing the glass here, we’re doing the Face ID module here, and so there’s a ton of it, and we’re doing these for products sold elsewhere in the world,” Cook said. “And so there’s a lot of content in there from United States.”