By the end of 2026, Apple plans to move the majority of the iPhones it sells to India, which would double its current output from the South Asian country and away from China, as it struggles with US President Donald Trump’s tariff war with China.
The tech giant makes up 80 percent of the 60 million US iPhones, and this significant step would help it lower some of the costs posed by rising tariffs on China.
Apple’s plans were first reported by The Financial Times on Friday.
According to the news agency Reuters, Apple, a business with a valuation of more than $3 trillion, is reportedly in talks with Indian manufacturers like Foxconn and the Tata Group to implement this strategy, according to an unnamed source cited by the Reuters news agency.
To combat tariffs imposed during the first Trump administration, the tech giant has already increased production there. According to Reuters, the Silicon Valley-based tech giant shipped roughly 600 tonnes of iPhones from India to the US in March, breaking both Tata and Foxconn records.
Narendra Modi, the country’s prime minister, has been pushing the country’s position as a global hub for smartphone production. In a boost for businesses like Apple, the nation removed import taxes on some components used to produce mobile phones earlier this year.
“You can’t actually compete against someone who doesn’t if you’re charging import tax for intermediary goods,” the saying goes. Their goal is to become the world’s leading manufacturing hub, according to Babak Hafezi, chief executive officer of Hafezi Capital, an international consulting firm.
According to a Bloomberg report, Apple shipped roughly $ 22 billion worth of iPhones to India for the 12-month period ending in March 2025, a 60% increase over the prior year. Only 20% of the world’s iPhones are produced in India despite the growth.
Roadblocks
Apple will lose money due to the production shift. A Reuters report citing an unnamed source claimed that manufacturing iPhones in China costs between 5-8 percent more than in India.
India will assist, but its efforts to reduce China’s dependence on Apple are not succeeding. As Apple is caught up in the tariff war, it will take years to implement this move, according to Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives.
Apple suppliers have been subject to legal challenges, according to a report from The Information earlier this week from the tech outlet The Information. Without giving an explanation, they have stopped or delayed shipment of equipment. Foxconn was able to submit export applications in some cases without them and in others it took up to four months.
It would take years to move a significant piece of the iPhone’s production from China to India, Ives said, referring to the phone’s components, which are produced in China and then shipped there to be assembled into the finished product.
Ives added that Apple’s plans to move US phone assembly entirely to India could cost the company between $30 billion and $40 billion.
If India’s infrastructure can handle the surge in production, there are concerns.
According to Hafezi, “They have a lot of infrastructure problems in terms of traffic and mobility, and all these different factors that make the production longer, which ultimately cost the company more money.”
To maximize manufacturing as much as you can and remain competitive on a global scale, he continued, “you need secure, continuous, and productive infrastructure.”
Apple’s decision comes as the Trump administration’s concern about the impact of the tariff war on the economy has been offset by concerns about the US and China’s trade tensions.
Trump made the claim that he had spoken with Xi Jinping, but he had not disclosed the date of their last conversation. Trump claimed that his administration has been discussing a tariff deal with Beijing in a TIME magazine interview earlier this week. China has disputed any US-US trade talks.
However, India and I am currently negotiating trade. US Vice President JD Vance met with India’s Modi earlier this week, where Vance claimed the two nations had “made good progress” in the midst of a hoped-for bilateral trade agreement.
