President Trump Asks Tim Cook’s Investment Strategy to Boost US Manufacturing; Here’s How Apple CEO Reacted

US President Donald Trump asked Apple CEO Tim Cook the kind of investment the company will make in domestic manufacturing. At a high-profile dinner hosted at the White House on Thursday, President Trump made another attempt to push Cook to bring Apple’s manufacturing base back to America from countries like China and India. 

“How much money is Apple going to be investing in the United States, because you know, you were really elsewhere and now you are coming back home in a big way,” said Trump in a video on X. 

The high-profile dinner was attended by other tech leaders like Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Microsoft head Satya Nadella.

Citing the $600 billion investment towards the American Manufacturing program, the Apple CEO appreciated Trump’s leadership and his vision for innovation. 

“I want to thank you for setting the tone such that we could make a major [$600 billion] investment in the United States...That says a lot about your focus and your leadership and your focus on innovation,” said the Apple CEO at the White House dinner party. 

Apple’s Manufacturing Move in America 

Apple announced its American Manufacturing programme earlier in August this year. The $600 billion will be utilised by the iPhone maker over the next four years to bring more of Apple’s supply chain and advanced manufacturing to the US. Under the programme, Apple has planned to give jobs to over 20,000 Americans across different roles, including R&D, silicon engineering, software development, and AI and machine learning. 

The development has come around a time when Apple is shifting its supply chain from China to countries like India and Vietnam, fueled by a changing trade tariff-driven geopolitical scenario. Apple is increasingly partnering with Indian companies like the Tata Group to ramp up production in the country. Trump, however, has openly disagreed with the iPhone maker’s move. 

“I had a little problem with Tim Cook yesterday. I said to him, ‘Tim, you’re my friend. I treated you very well. You’re coming in with $500 billion (investment). But now I hear you’re building all over India. I don’t want you building in India,” Trump had earlier said.