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Tariffs are about to hit Apple (AAPL-0.39%) — and hard. As Big Tech and other firms continue to grapple with the Trump administration’s shifting tariff policies, Apple CEO Tim Cook said during the company’s latest earnings call that tariffs could cost it $900 million this 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,” Cook said Thursday after the company reported second-quarter earnings. “However... 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.
“This estimate should not be used to make projections for future quarters,” he added, “as there are certain unique factors that benefit the June quarter.”
Apple expects to buy more than 19 billion chips from U.S. manufacturers this year and continue to shift manufacturing away from China to India, Cook said.
For the June quarter, he said, “we do expect 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 also sold in the U.S.”
However, China will continue to be the country of origin for the vast majority of product sales outside the U.S., Cook said on the earnings call.
Cook said Apple will lean more on TSMC (TSM+0.63%), which is expanding its Arizona operations to half a dozen plants.
Apple’s quarterly earnings, reported Thursday, rose 8% from the prior year to $1.65 per share, exceeding expectations. The company’s stock was still down about 4% in Friday morning trading, reflecting investor concerns about escalating tariff costs and lower sales in China.
Apple already makes 20%, or one in five, of its iPhones in India. It expects to import most of the iPhones for the U.S. from India by the end of next year.