Apple’s Tim Cook laughing at the inauguration

Apple CEO Tim Cook greets former President Barack Obama after the inauguration of Donald Trump (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/Getty Images)

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Ives: iPhone production will remain in China and India, despite what Trump says

Trump yesterday said he had a “little problem” with Apple CEO Tim Cook not bringing production to the US.

Rani Molla

5/16/25 8:16AM

Yesterday President Trump reiterated that he wants Apple to move production to the US, not India, where it had been moving iPhone manufacturing for the US market to avoid uncertainty about tariffs on China. Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives today countered that’s just not going to happen. At least not soon.

From the note, bolding ours:

“While Apple has announced $500 billion of investment (and likely more on the docket) into the US which are primarily AI driven initiatives, we see no chance that iPhone production starts to happen in the US in the near-term given the upside down cost model and Herculean-like supply chain logistics needed for such an initiative. We fully expect more pressure from the Trump Administration on Apple to build iPhone production in the US... but as we have discussed this would result in an iPhone price point that is a non-starter for Cupertino and translate into iPhone prices of ~$3,500 if it was made in the US and this would take many years.”

Ives called Apple CEO Tim Cook’s pivot to India a “very smart strategic move given the uncertain tariff environment facing Apple in China” and his “hall of fame moment.” The analyst says Apple could bring about 60% to 65% of iPhone assembly production to India by the fall but “could easily pivot back to a China driven iPhone strategy depending on the tariff situation and deal negotiations.”

Millie Giles

INSTA PLUS MAX

Meta is testing out premium subscriptions on Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp

Ahead of its earnings, expected after the bell today, Meta has announced plans to trial a paid tier on its apps.

Meta Apps - Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Threads

Rani Molla4h

Amazon cuts another 16,000 roles after laying off 14,000 workers in October

Amazon announced Wednesday that it’s cutting 16,000 roles across the company, having laid off 14,000 workers only three months ago.

“As I shared in October, we’ve been working to strengthen our organization by reducing layers, increasing ownership, and removing bureaucracy,” Senior Vice President of People Experience and Technology Beth Galetti wrote in the press release. “While many teams finalized their organizational changes in October, other teams did not complete that work until now.”

CEO Andy Jassy previously said that the October layoffs were “about culture” rather than AI-related cost cutting. Galetti says layoffs, now totaling 30,000, won’t become a regular occurrence.

“Some of you might ask if this is the beginning of a new rhythm — where we announce broad reductions every few months. That’s not our plan.”

Update on our organization

CEO Andy Jassy previously said that the October layoffs were “about culture” rather than AI-related cost cutting. Galetti says layoffs, now totaling 30,000, won’t become a regular occurrence.

“Some of you might ask if this is the beginning of a new rhythm — where we announce broad reductions every few months. That’s not our plan.”

Jon Keegan19h

Anthropic reportedly doubles current fundraising round to $20 billion

Anthropic has doubled its current fundraising round to $20 billion on strong investor demand, according reporting from the Financial Times. The new fundraising round would value the company at a staggering $350 billion. That’s up 91% from September, when it raised at a valuation of $183 billion.

The company reportedly received interest totaling 5x to 6x its original $10 billion fundraising goal, and it’s expected to haul in several billion more than that tally before the current round closes.

Anthropic’s success with enterprise customers and the popularity of its Claude Code product are boosting the company’s momentum as it chases the current valuation leader of the AI startup pack: OpenAI.

Anthropic doubles VC fundraising to $20bn on surging investor demand

Produce At Whole Foods Market's Flagship Store

Amazon says it’s doubling down on opening Whole Foods stores. That sounds familiar.

The company says it’ll open 100 Whole Foods locations in the next few years. That sounds similar to plans Whole Foods’ CEO laid out in 2024 for opening 30 stores a year. Since then, it appears to have added 14, total.

Rani Molla21h

One year after the DeepSeek freak, the AI industry has adjusted and roared back

A look back at how the Chinese startup shattered conventions, changed the way Big Tech thought about AI, and blew a $1 trillion hole in the stock market that got filled right back up... and then soared to new levels.

Jon Keegan22h