Don't want you building in India, Trump tells Apple CEO

At a business meeting in Doha on Thursday (May 15), the US President Donald Trump said that he had spoken to Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple Inc, telling him that there's no need to build factories in India unless it is to specifically serve the Indian and Asian markets.

"Told Apple CEO Tim Cook we're not interested in you building in India, they can take care of themselves," said Trump in Doha about his conversation with Cook.

The US President had mentioned this issue as a 'little problem' he had with the Apple CEO.

'Don't build in India'

"I said to him, my friend, I am treating you very good. You are coming up with $500 billion, but now I hear you are building all over India. I don't want you building in India. You can build in India, if you want to take care of 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.

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Trump further said that "India has offered us a deal where basically they are willing to literally charge us no tariff,", and thus wanted Apple to step up their production in the United States. In April, the U.S. administration imposed 26% duties on imports from India, much lower than the 100% China was facing at the time.

Washington has since paused most duties for three months, except for China, but this has impacted Apple's decision to move its production to India, to escape extreme tariff taxation to import into the US.

Currently three plants in India

Apple manufactured approximately 40–45 million iPhones in India in 2024, accounting for 18–20% of its global output.

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Of this, around 14–15 million were exported to the U.S., 13 million to other international markets, and about 12 million were sold in the Indian market.

Apple currently has three plants in India, two in Tamil Nadu and one in Karnataka.

Foxconn and Tata, major players

The majority of India-manufactured iPhones are produced at Foxconn Technology Group's facility in southern India.

Another significant supplier is Tata group's electronics division, which acquired Wistron Corp's local operations and manages Pegatron Corp's Indian facilities. Both Foxconn and Tata are expanding their presence with new facilities and increased production capacity in southern India.

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In the last fiscal ending March, Apple had assembled iPhones worth $22 billion in India, a 60 per cent increase in production as compared to the previous financial year.