Apple on Tuesday announced a significant expansion of factory operations in Houston, bringing the future production of Mac mini to America for the first time. The company will also expand advanced AI server manufacturing at the factory and provide hands-on training at its new Advanced Manufacturing Center beginning later this year. Altogether, Apple’s Houston operations will create thousands of jobs.
Currently, the strong-selling Mac mini is assembled in Asia, primarily in China and Vietnam.
“Apple is deeply committed to the future of American manufacturing, and we’re proud to significantly expand our footprint in Houston with the production of Mac mini starting later this year,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, in a statement. “We began shipping advanced AI servers from Houston ahead of schedule, and we’re excited to accelerate that work even further.”
For more than two decades, users around the world have relied on the incredibly popular Mac mini for the tremendous power it packs into its ultra-compact design. With its next-level AI capabilities, it has become an essential tool for everyone from students and aspiring creatives to small business owners. Beginning later this year, Mac mini will be produced at a new factory on Apple’s Houston manufacturing site, doubling the campus’s footprint.
As part of our $600B commitment, Mac mini will be produced in the US for the first time later this year!
We're accelerating our progress even further— producing more AI servers and opening an all-new Apple Advanced Manufacturing Center for hands-on training. pic.twitter.com/NO5DeZvPwP
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) February 24, 2026
Apple began producing advanced AI servers in Houston in 2025 for the first time, and production is already ahead of schedule. Servers assembled in Houston — including logic boards produced onsite — are used in Apple data centers around the country.
Beyond production, Apple is investing in the workforce that will drive American manufacturing forward. Later this year, Apple’s 20,000-square-foot Advanced Manufacturing Center is scheduled to open its doors in Houston. Currently under construction, the dedicated facility will provide hands-on training in advanced manufacturing techniques to students, supplier employees, and American businesses of all sizes. Apple experts will teach participants the same innovative processes that are used to make Apple products, allowing American manufacturers to take their work to the next level.
Since announcing its $600 billion commitment to the U.S. last year, Apple and its American Manufacturing Program partners have already reached several milestones:
• Apple exceeded its target and sourced more than 20 billion U.S.-made chips from 24 factories across 12 states, including those of partners like TSMC, Broadcom, and Texas Instruments.
• GlobalWafers has begun production at its new $4 billion bare silicon wafer facility in Sherman, Texas. At Apple’s direction, wafers produced in Sherman will be used by Apple’s chip manufacturing partners in the U.S., including TSMC and Texas Instruments.
• Supported by Apple’s investment, Amkor broke ground on its new $7 billion semiconductor advanced packaging and test facility in Peoria, Arizona, where Apple will be the first and largest customer.
• Corning’s Harrodsburg, Kentucky, facility is now 100 percent dedicated to cover glass for iPhone and Apple Watch shipped globally, and by the end of this year, every new iPhone and Apple Watch will have cover glass made in the state.
• In 2026, Apple is on track to purchase well over 100 million advanced chips produced by TSMC at its Arizona facility — a significant increase from 2025.
• Apple opened its Apple Manufacturing Academy in Detroit, which is already supporting more than 130 small- and medium-sized American manufacturers with hands-on training in AI, automation, and smart manufacturing. The academy recently expanded with new virtual programming, giving businesses across the country on-demand access to the curriculum developed by Apple experts and Michigan State University faculty.
MacDailyNews Take: Tariffs have a funny way of turning “Made in China” into “Made in America” virtually overnight. Apple may even get a mention in the president’s State of the Union speech tonight — the timing of this American manufacturing acceleration feels almost too perfect to be coincidental.
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This type of new American manufacturing would NEVER have happened with a DEI ditz like Kamala Harris – or ANY other Democrat – in the White House, perish the thought.
Of course, many of us would be dead anyway since an unrestrained Iran would’ve lobbed some nukes into American cities by now.
Thank God, for President Trump!
I hear more about the mini today than any other AAPL product…as an individual’s AI Agent device.
The plan in for this began under the Biden administration and would’ve happened no matter who was in office. It was not a function of tariffs or anything Trump did.
Correct. From Apple Insider: ” Apple’s permits for the AI server plant were filed back in 2023. The existence of the Houston facility’s AI server line was only revealed February 2025, as part of Apple’s US investment plan announcements.
The same sources told us that an expansion permit, presumably for the new Mac mini facility, was filed in very early 2024. This was about nine months before Trump secured his second term, more than six months before he promised tariffs on imported goods, and more than a year before those threats were made good.
Even with all the money in the world, Apple can’t go from bare earth to a factory cranking out high-tech hardware in months.
We’re not crediting the Biden administration with this Mac mini effort. But it’s also not correct to credit Trump’s leadership either, but we’re sure we’ll hear about it during the State of the Union.”
The years of planning started in Trumps first term, beginning with the CHIP act in October, 2019.