Apple assembled $14 billion worth of iPhone smartphones in India last fiscal year as the tech giant looks to weaken its reliance on China, according to a new report.
Bloomberg, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter, reports that about 14% of the Cupertino, California-based company’s iPhones are now made in India. That comes out to about 1 in 7 of Apple’s most popular products made across the 2024 fiscal year, which ended in March.
The accelerated production boom in India comes as Apple moves to wane itself off its reliance on China amid rising geopolitical tensions. Apple lost an estimated $1 billion per week after a violent workers’ revolt at its largest iPhone factory in China in 2022. Since then, Apple has been encouraging suppliers to move toward India-made batteries for its smartphones and move some production to India.
The majority — about 67% — of the iPhones made in India were assembled by Foxconn Technology Group, the Taiwanese company that also makes iPhones in China, Bloomberg reports. Pegatron, another Taiwanese company, made about 16% of the iPhones in India.
The remainder were built by India’s Tata Group, which took over longtime iPhone maker Wistron’s factory in the southern state of Karnataka after the company began unwinding its operations in the country last year. Pegatron is in “advanced talks” to hand over control of its only iPhone manufacturing facility to the Tata Group, Reuters reports.
After Apple CEO Tim Cook — along with other tech executives — met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi last June, he told CNBC that India represents a “huge opportunity.” Apple opened its first retail store in Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex, a prominent commercial hub, and New Delhi last year. It plans to open another three stores by 2027.
Apple controls about 6% of India’s smartphone market, in a market dominated by cheaper Chinese brands. Apple makes models ranging from the legacy 12 to the base iPhone 15 in India, Bloomberg reports, but not the higher-range 15 Pro and Pro Max models.