Apple is building a new factory in Texas to make AI servers and plans to expand its data centers as part of a $500 billion commitment to US manufacturing.
The 250,000 sq ft (23,225 sqm) facility will be built in Houston, Texas, and employ “thousands” of people, the company said, and make the servers needed to run Apple Intelligence, the tech giant’s AI service.
Currently, the servers the company uses are manufactured abroad, but this will change when the factory opens in 2026, CEO Tim Cook said.
“We are bullish on the future of American innovation, and we’re proud to build on our long-standing US investments with this $500 billion commitment to our country’s future,” said Cook. “We’ll keep working with people and companies across this country to help write an extraordinary new chapter in the history of American innovation.”
Apple will work with Taiwanese firm Foxconn, which manufactures the iPhone, on the new factory. According to the New York Times, last year Foxconn purchased a parcel of land next to an existing warehouse it owns in Houston, which will likely serve as the location for the new facility.
DCD reported in December that Apple was in talks with Foxconn over a deal to build AI servers using its in-house silicon. Apple has been making its own chips since 2021, and is apparently in the process of designing a new AI accelerator, codenamed Baltra, which it is developing with Broadcom. This could also be ready by 2026.
The company’s investment in the US also includes a pledge to expand its existing data centers in North Carolina, Iowa, Oregon, Arizona, and Nevada, as well as a “multi-billion dollar commitment” to manufacture chips at TSMC’s Fab 21 facility in Arizona.
Apple is currently heavily reliant on Chinese manufacturing for many of its products, and is set to face a hefty bill under President Donald Trump’s new tariff regime, which will see a 10 percent levy imposed on Chinese imports.
The company managed to avoid tariffs during Trump's first term as president, and Cook, who was a guest at the President’s inauguration in January, met Trump in the Oval Office last week. After the meeting, Trump said Cook was “investing hundreds of billions of dollars” in the US.
