CNN
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Tariffs could add US $ 900 million to Apple’s costs, this quarter, the Apple CEO, Tim Cook, said on Thursday, revealing that the technological giant was moving the production of iPhones sold in the United States in China to India.
“Assuming that current global tariff policies, policies and applications do not change during the rest of the quarter and new tariffs are not added, we estimate that the impact will add US $ 900 million to our costs,” he said at a telephone conference on quarterly gains.
Since part of the iPhone production has already moved to India in recent years, Cook said he expected that “most of the iPhones sold in the US have India as a country of origin.”
The announcement that Apple is diversifying its global supply chain beyond China in such an important way underlines the impact of 145% astronomical tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump against the Asian giant.
About 90% of Apple’s iPhone production, its most profitable product, has remained in China, despite efforts to increase manufacturing in other places, according to the Wedbush Securities financial services firm.
Although the exemption of the “reciprocal” tariffs of China to smartphones and other electronic devices that contain semiconductors have fought the iPhones of the most severe taxes, products manufactured in China still face a minimum tax of 20%, according to Cook.
Apple’s shares fell almost 4% in the operations after the closing of the session after the presentation of results, which reflects investors’ concerns about the uncertain perspectives posed by tariffs and instability of the supply chain.
“We have a complex supply chain. There are always risks in it,” Cook said. “What we learned for a long time was that having everything in one place involved too much risk.”
Cook said that most Apple products for markets outside the United States will continue to be manufactured in China. Vietnam will become the origin of almost all iPads, Macs, Apple Watches and Airpods sold in the United States, he added.
Despite tariff difficulties, Apple reported solid finances in the quarter from January to March. The income increased by 5% in the first three months of the year, reaching US $ 95.4 billion, compared to the same period of 2024, exceeding the expectations of analysts. IPhones revenues increased by 2%, reaching US $ 46,800 million.
“In the quarter of March, we had a limited impact of tariffs, since we could optimize our supply and inventory chain,” said Cook.
However, their sales in the Grand China region, including Hong Kong and Taiwan, fell slightly to US $ 16,000 million, a decrease of approximately 2% compared to the previous year. This fall occurs when Apple faces a growing competition of local smartphone manufacturers in China, its second largest market.
The Trump administration is anxious to make Apple bring the production of the iPhone to the United States, an ambition that analysts have said it is almost impossible to achieve.
Dan Iives, global technological research director of Wedbush Securities, said previously that the price of an iPhone could more than triple up to around US $ 3,500 if it was manufactured in the United States.
Trump has frequently promoted the investment of US $ 500,000 million of Apple, announced by the technological giant in February, as a victory. The expense, scheduled for the next four years, is part of its effort to expand production outside of China and avoid tariffs imposed by Trump to the country.
But this commitment is aimed at building server facilities to support Apple Intelligence, the company’s artificial intelligence service, and an academy to train companies in manufacturing techniques, instead of in the production of iPhone.
