Willy Shih Says iPhone Needs 100,000-Worker China Assembly Scale, Not U.S. Plants
Updated
Updated · The Verge · Nov 5
Willy Shih Says iPhone Needs 100,000-Worker China Assembly Scale, Not U.S. Plants
1 articles · Updated · The Verge · Nov 5
Summary
Shih said Apple still cannot make the iPhone in the United States because final assembly needs vast pools of manual labor that China can mobilize at 100,000 to 200,000 workers per site.
The phone also depends on a global chain of specialized inputs — advanced TSMC chips, Dutch and U.S. chipmaking tools, U.S. glass and titanium — making China the assembly hub rather than the sole source of parts.
He argued tariffs have mostly redirected production instead of reshoring it, with companies shifting assembly to Mexico or Vietnam, rerouting components, and using trade agreements to blunt higher U.S. import costs.
Shih said U.S. manufacturing can expand in areas with high automation, high labor productivity or unique technology, but policy volatility and constantly changing tariffs make long-term factory investment hard to justify.
The broader lesson, he said, is that supply chains follow economics and scale: rebuilding strategic capacity requires targeted industrial planning, not blanket efforts to force mass-market products like the iPhone back to America.