Apple is deploying $60 billion into a Texas manufacturing complex as John Ternus assumes the chief executive role today, a capital commitment that sits inside a $600 billion four-year US manufacturing pledge announced last year. The Houston plant will build the Mac mini and advanced artificial intelligence servers, while a separate long-term agreement with Broadcom to develop custom silicon and wireless components is valued at more than $30 billion. The iPhone remains excluded from domestic production, a fact the company acknowledges would require substantially higher prices.
The Texas facility and Broadcom tie-up
The Houston site represents Apple’s largest-ever American manufacturing program commitment, in Tim Cook’s words from the fiscal third-quarter earnings call. The Broadcom partnership is framed as a step toward an end-to-end domestic silicon supply chain. Neither the Texas outlay nor the Broadcom deal discloses consideration structure, premium to undisturbed pricing, or break conditions, omissions that leave the leverage between the parties unobservable. Cook’s stated rationale is treated here as a claim, not a verified driver.
Tariff refunds pad margins but memory costs surge
Reported gross margin of 50.1 percent in the latest quarter included a two-percentage-point lift from tariff refunds. Diluted earnings per share rose 29 percent year over year to $2.02, with $0.11 of that increase attributable to the same refunds. Those refunds stem from tariffs paid before the US Supreme Court ruled in February 2026 that certain levies were unlawful, though the ruling does not preclude new tariffs under other statutes. Apple says it will reinvest the refund proceeds into the domestic supply chain.
Guidance signals near-term pressure
For the fiscal fourth quarter ending in September, the company guides gross margin between 47 percent and 48 percent, inclusive of a one-percentage-point benefit from remaining tariff refunds. Executives characterized the recent surge in memory prices as a “100-year flood,” a cost headwind that the domestic investment does not immediately offset. Analysts continue to model low-double-digit earnings growth over the longer term, contingent on the supply-chain diversification limiting future trade-policy impacts on margins.