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Apple's Tim Cook thought he had a plan B for Trump's tariffs. It wasn't enough.

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple (AAPL), tried to protect the tech giant from tariffs for years by reducing its dependence on China and moving production to countries such as India and Vietnam in a strategy that goes back to Trump's first tariffs for Beijing.

But this effort now seems to have come across a well -known obstacle: President Trump.

The Apple share deleted over 100 billion US dollars from market capitalization early Friday, after Trump announced that the iPhone manufacturer had to pay at least 25% tariff unless his iPhones are hit in the United States.

Read more: The latest news and updates to Trump's customs duties

The warning underlines the limits of Apple's recent efforts to isolate itself from geopolitical risk.

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Although China still makes up around 85% of iPhone production, Apple has significantly expanded its manufacturing footprint in recent years and has invested a lot in countries such as India and Vietnam.

India in particular experienced an increase in iPhone production when Apple tried to be ahead of Trump's upcoming tariffs. This culminated in a record of devices worth 2 billion US dollars, which were flown to the USA just a few weeks before Trump's Liberation Day by supplier Foxconn and Tata.

Since then, with the exception of China, the President has held the most additional tasks in other countries. The United States has laid a tariff price of 30% for Beijing imports, while most other countries are exposed to a delivery of 10%.

The shift is already changing the origins of Apple's product procurement.

“For the June Quartal, we expect that the majority of iPhones sold in the USA as a country of origin and Vietnam will be the country of origin for almost all products from iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and Airpods products in the USA,” said Cook on the company's call for profit last month. “China would continue to be the country of origin for the vast majority of total product sales outside the United States.”

In addition to the diversification of its supply chain, Apple announced plans at the beginning of this year to invest more than 500 billion US dollars in the USA over the next four years. This includes the setting of 20,000 people and creating a new server factory in Texas.

“We are optimistic in the future of American innovation and we are proud to build on our long-term US investments with this $ 500 billion engagement for the future of our country,” said Cook in a corporate blog contribution.

But as the warning on Friday showed, these efforts were not sufficient to protect the company from Trump's tariff threats.

Apple CEO Tim Cook (C) checked behind US President Donald Trump (R) and US Vice President JD Vance (L) after the two were sworn into office on January 20, 2025 during an inauguration in the redunda of the US capitol in Washington, DC. · Shawn Thew about Getty Images

“I have announced Tim Cook from Apple a long time ago that I would expect your iPhone to be sold in the United States of America that will be built in the USA, not in India or elsewhere,” Trump in a social post said on Friday morning. “If this is not the case, a tariff of at least 25% of Apple must be paid to the USA.”

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