Apple Showcases Texas Mac Mini Factory, New Manufacturing School

HOUSTON—In one of his last public appearances as Apple’s AAPL 1.00%increase; up pointing triangle Chief Executive, Tim Cook on Thursday toured a Texas factory with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, showing off a new manufacturing school and assembly line that later this year will start producing Mac Mini computers.

The tour demonstrated the close ties between Apple and the Trump administration, which has touted Apple’s commitment to invest in the U.S. as a centerpiece of the president’s effort to rebuild American manufacturing. Apple has managed to avoid some of the heavy tariffs imposed by the administration.

“Advanced manufacturing is where the puck is going,” Lutnick said to a room full of workers taking a class in Apple manufacturing techniques. “The problem is we need to train Americans.”

“We believe in the promise of this nation and we’re proud to put our money where our mouth is,” said Cook in a speech.

Most of Apple’s supply chain remains overseas. The idea behind the manufacturing school is to share some of Apple’s expertise with small- and midsize businesses in the U.S. It previously opened a classroom-based manufacturing program in Detroit. The new facility is meant to be more hands-on.

The Mac Mini assembly line occupies a new 170,000-square-foot space at the Foxconn facility, which already makes AI servers for Apple. Sales of the desktop computer have grown in the past year as it has proven popular among customers running AI models at home.

Lutnick’s stop at Foxconn was part of a weeklong trip to promote increased American manufacturing, following events with Toyota and Ford Motor to highlight increased auto production domestically.

President Trump has pushed Apple to make iPhones in the U.S., but the company hasn’t announced any plans to do so and is instead expanding iPhone assembly in India.

The Trump administration has sought to work with Apple to encourage more investment in America as Apple’s huge budget for device parts gives it leverage to press suppliers to make domestic investments. Along with other companies, it committed to buy chip wafers from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing’s new facility in Arizona, expected to cost more than $200 billion.

This year it also struck a deal with U.S.-chip company Intel to make some of its device chips, a tie-up particularly close to Lutnick who led an initiative for the U.S. government to invest $9 billion in Intel for a 10% stake. Apple also said it would spend $30 billion on chips made domestically by Broadcom.

Apple’s own capital budget is relatively small compared with those of rival tech giants plowing money into AI and chip makers building new plants. Apple under Cook has perfected a business model that limits the capital it employs to run its business. The iPhone-maker’s total capital expenditures dating back to 2023 are less than the amount Amazon, Microsoft and Google each spent in their most recent quarter.

At the Houston plant, Foxconn is primarily making the capital investments to build the assembly lines while Apple is committing to buy the products that are produced. Foxconn has long been one of Apple’s closest supply chain partners.

Apple has made ever-larger investment pledges to the White House over the years, the most recent being a promise to invest $600 billion domestically over four years. That spending includes amounts already earmarked for Apple’s existing domestic operations, including pay for U.S.-based corporate and retail staff, as well as the cost of components Apple will buy from U.S. suppliers.

Cook has cultivated particularly close ties with Trump, dating back to his first administration. He often speaks with the president, served on a job-creation committee and has donated Apple’s money and his own to Trump initiatives, including the new White House ballroom and Trump’s inaugural.

He has also given Trump big U.S. investment commitments, including last fall when he appeared in the Oval Office to boost the company’s current domestic investment promise. At that meeting he gave Trump a glass plaque with a gold base. And Trump gave Cook what Apple shareholders wanted most: relief from the administration’s most expensive tariffs.

Cook is expected to step down as CEO next month and will become chairman. John Ternus, Apple’s longtime chief of hardware engineering, will take over as chief executive.

Trump toured a Flextronics facility in 2019 with Cook where Apple’s Mac Pro computers were being made. At the time Trump touted it as evidence of a resurgence of manufacturing in the U.S. Apple secured tariff forbearance at the time as well. Apple has since discontinued the Mac Pro as products like the Mac Mini have proved more popular.

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