Apple’s Reshoring Push Spreads Development Throughout Texas

Apple committed to a multibillion-dollar investment in U.S. manufacturing focused heavily on the Texas Triangle, during a meeting at the White House on Wednesday, in a move that could be a boon for real estate developers across the state.

Apple CEO Tiim Cook promised to spend $100 billion on U.S. manufacturing, on top of the $500 billion investment announced by the company in February, the Dallas Morning news reported.

Those investments — what it calls the American Manufacturing Program — include making laser equipment in Sherman, adding a second office campus in Austin and developing a server farm in Houston.

Partnerships with various manufacturers of computer and smart phone hardware components will stretch across the state, such as with GlobalWafers America, a manufacturer based in Sherman, north of Dallas. The company produces thin electronic components used in semiconductors called wafers.

Also in Sherman, Apple is planning a multiyear agreement with Coherent, a company that produces the laser-emitting components for Face ID use in Apple products. Apple also plans another agreement in North Texas with Dallas-based Texas Instruments.

Sherman is expected to become North Texas’ next real estate boomtown amid Texas Instruments’ plans for a $30 million semiconductor there.

Apple is building a second office campus in Austin to develop partnerships with Applied Materials and Samsung. Samsung has two semiconductor campuses in the Austin area. Apple is also building a 250,000-square-foot server factory in Houston.

Apple previously struck a $500 million deal with MP Materials Corporation, a producer of rare-earth materials that will result in a neodymium magnet manufacturing facility in Fort Worth for Apple products.

“Our products are designed here. We are hiring and growing here. And we support 450,000 jobs with thousands of suppliers and partners in all 50 states,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook alongside President Donald Trump on Wednesday.

The announcements come as Trump applies pressure to tech and other industries to bring back more domestic manufacturing away from international supply chains or risk tariffs on their products. The president has threatened semiconductor manufacturers with 100 percent tariffs unless they build their products domestically.

—Eric Weilbacher