Trump Speaks to Cook as Apple Reported to Weigh Raising iPhone Prices

TMTPOST -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday suggested Apple Inc. intends to raise its spending plan in the country as the iPhone maker is weighing by his sweeping tariffs.

Credit：Apple

Trump told reporters he met with Apple CEO Tim Cook at Monday morning and learned that the company would like to ramp up its investment. “I spoke to Tim Cook this morning, and he’s going to, I think, even up his numbers,” Trump said in the Oval Office. ”$500 billion, he’s going to be building a lot of plants in the United States for Apple. And we look forward to that.”

Apple said in February it plans to invest more than $500 billion in the U.S. over the next four years, which is described as the largest-ever spend commitment in its nearly 49-year history.

The Cupertino, California-based company expected the new investments will create 20,000 jobs in U.S. in next four years, on top of the current 2.9 million jobs it supported across the country through direct employment, work with U.S.-based suppliers and manufacturers, and developer jobs in the thriving iOS app economy. A vast majority of the newly created jobs will be focused on research and development (R&D), silicon engineering, software development, and artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.

With the new investments, Apple will work with partners to transfer part of production of servers from outside the U.S. to Houston later this year, and a new server manufacturing facility, covering 250,000 square feet, is set to open in 2026. As Apple brings Apple Intelligence, , its advanced personal AI system, to customers across the U.S., it also plans to continue expanding data center capacity in North Carolina, Iowa, Oregon, Arizona, and Nevada.

A few hours prior to Trump’s remarks on Monday, the Wall Street Journal revealed Apple could hike prices for its upcoming iPhone lineup this fall, highlighting the effort to absorb impact of tariffs. It was said that Apple is considering price-raising and is determined to avoid any scenario in which it appears to attribute price increases to U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports.

Cook on May 1 warned the Trump administration’s tariffs could make a $900 million hit for the current quarter. “For the June quarter, currently we are not able to precisely estimate the impact of tariffs as we are uncertain of potential future actions prior to the end of the quarter. However, for some color, assuming the current global tariff rates, policies, and applications do not change for the balance of the quarter and no new tariffs are added, we estimate the impact to add $900 million to our costs,” Cook told analysts on an earnings conference.

For the June quarter, Apple expected the majority of iPhones sold in the U.S. Will have India as their country of origin, and Vietnam to be the country of origin for almost all iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and AirPods products sold in the U.S., Cook spoke with analysts. He added that China would continue to be the country of origin for the vast majority of total product sales outside the U.S.

Chinese facilities will continue to handle the bulk of production for Apple’s most profitable, high-end phones, such as the Pro and Pro Max models, and India’s infrastructure and technical capabilities aren’t yet sufficient to support mass production at the scale China can currently deliver, the Wall Street Journal cited people familiar with the Apple supply chain. It was said that Apple would have trouble offsetting China tariff costs solely by seeking further savings from its suppliers, meaning that tariffs could erode its profit margin unless it could raise prices.