Could the iPhone someday carry a “Made in the USA” badge? According to U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Apple CEO Tim Cook seems to think so, but only if the right robotic tech is in place.
“I need to have the robotic arms”
In a recent interview with CNBC, Lutnick shared details from what he claims was a candid conversation with Cook. When asked about the possibility of iPhones being manufactured in the U.S., Cook allegedly replied, “I need to have the robotic arms.”
The idea is simple: for Apple to build iPhones on American soil, it would need the automation tools to do so with the same level of scale and precision as it currently achieves abroad, primarily in China. Cook reportedly added, “The day I see that available, it’s coming here.”
Apple already invests heavily in the U.S. around $500 billion, according to Lutnick, but most of that money goes toward things like data centers, app development, and other infrastructure. iPhone assembly, meanwhile, remains rooted overseas, mainly due to labor specialization and production costs.
But Cook’s comment hints that Apple isn’t ruling out a future shift. The challenge, as Lutnick put it, is Apple’s understandable reluctance to rely on massive human workforces. “He doesn’t want 500,000 employees,” Lutnick explained, noting that labor unrest or strikes in countries like China could pose serious risks to Apple’s supply chain.
Instead, Apple envisions an “AI Industrial Revolution,” where skilled U.S. workers won’t be assembling iPhones with tiny screws but managing high-tech factories and robotic systems. Lutnick made it clear: Americans would be “the technicians, not the screw-turners.”
Still, this robotic future won’t materialize overnight. Cook has spoken in the past about why it’s so hard to bring production stateside. In a 2018 discussion, he pointed out that China has spent decades building up a massive talent pool of highly skilled tooling engineers.
That kind of expertise, Cook noted, isn’t just about cheap labor—it’s about specialization, and that’s not something you can build up quickly in the U.S. It requires long-term investment in vocational training and education, areas where China has a clear head start.
A Long Road Ahead
And while robotic arms might sound like a futuristic fix, they can’t yet replicate the full range of skilled tasks performed in Apple’s current factories. So even with automation on the horizon, there’s still a long road ahead before full-scale U.S. iPhone production is viable.
For now, Apple fans shouldn’t expect to see domestically built iPhones anytime soon. Apple is already looking to bring in India-assembled iPhones to the U.S. considering the U.S. trade war. But if Apple can crack the code on robotic manufacturing, and if the U.S. can nurture the right kind of skilled workforc, the dream might not be as far-fetched as it once seemed.
