Apple is investing $ 500 million in an agreement with the American Rare MP Materials company, as Iphone’s manufacturer faces pressure from President Donald Trump to produce its popular smartphones in the United States.
As part of the partnership announced on Tuesday (15), Apple has pledged to buy rare land magnets directly from MP Materials to help strengthen its US supply chain.
Big Tech will also collaborate with the company in a new California recycling line, which will reuse recycled rare land materials for use in iPhone manufacturer.
The measure is part of one announced by Apple earlier this year to expand its US operations, while the Trump government seeks technology manufacturing in the country and reduces China’s dependence.
The rare lands, essential to everything, from smartphones to TV and military jets ,. This is because China controls almost all rare land processing.
“American innovation drives everything we do at Apple, and we are proud to deepen our investment in the US economy,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a press release.
“Rare land materials are essential for the creation of advanced technology, and this partnership will help strengthen the supply of these vital materials here in the United States.”
The MP Materials Unit in Fort Worth, Texas, will create new magnet manufacturing lines specifically for Apple products. Deliveries are scheduled to start by 2027 and will eventually support “hundreds of millions of Apple devices”, according to MP Materials.
The materials will be delivered in all the United States and around the world.
Apple states that expansion will create dozens of new jobs. Both companies will also offer training to develop a US workforce for magnet manufacturing.
China has a virtual monopoly on, essential components for everyday products such as smartphones, wind turbines, LED lamps and flat -screen TVs.
They are also crucial for electric vehicle batteries as well as magnetic resonance imaging and cancer treatments.
The name rare lands is also a bit inappropriate. The materials are found throughout the earth’s crust, but are difficult and expensive to extract and process.
China has the only equipment necessary to process some of the various elements and currently controls 92% of global production in the processing phase.
Although MP Materials’ agreement can help Apple gain Trump’s sympathy in the middle, he also aligns with the company’s efforts to incorporate more recycled materials into its products – a plan that was already in force long before the Republican assumed office.
O, launched earlier this year, for example, includes 30% of recycled content. Apple claims to use recycled rare land on its main products, including magnets found on the latest iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, MacBooks and Macs models.
The Trump government has been pressuring Apple and other technology giants to produce their products in the United States rather than depending on mounting facilities and supply chain operations located mainly in China, India and Vietnam.
“Apple’s Tim Cook for a long time, which I hope for its iPhones sold in the United States to be manufactured and built in the United States, not in India or anywhere else,” Trump published on Truth Social in May. “If this is not the case, Apple should pay a at least 25% tariff to the US.”
Apple did not discuss plans to transfer iPhone manufacturing to the US ,. This was because it would require the technology giant to radically change the way it manufactures its most lucrative product.
Expanding expertise
Fundamentally, the collaboration between Apple and MP Manufacturing involves the development of the talent set needed for the manufacture of magnets.
This is part of the reason why it is so challenging to transfer iPhone production to the United States – the US lacks the highly specialized labor needed for it, experts say.
“The expertise necessary to manufacture each of the components is something that needs to be worked for a long period of time,” he said before CNN International David Marcotte, senior vice president of the international market research company Kantar.
Cook also talked about labor gap in the past, describing the workforce in China as a combination of “artisan”, “sophisticated robotics” and “world of computer science” skills when talking about a 2017 Fortune magazine event.
But the commitment to invest in rare land of American origin will likely please Trump. The president praised Apple’s previous investment announcement as a victory in his efforts to boost American industry.
Apple is just one of many technology giants that have expanded its presence in the United States in recent months.
Texas Instruments has invested $ 60 billion in the manufacture of semiconductors in the United States in June, and TSMC’s Taiwanese giant invested $ 100 billion in American manufacturing in March.
Nvidia, a leading AI chip manufacturer, also announced that it would build its supercomputers in the United States in April.
With information from Chris Isidore, from CNN Internacional
Translated by João Nakamura, from CNN, in São Paulo
