[HN Gopher] Mac mini will be made at a new facility in Houston
___________________________________________________________________
Mac mini will be made at a new facility in Houston
Author : haunter
Score : 200 points
Date : 2026-02-24 21:13 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.apple.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.apple.com)
| epolanski wrote:
| They have been saying this since almost a decade.
| buzzerbetrayed wrote:
| They're literally opening a new 20,000 square foot facility I
| Houston. So I'm not sure what your comment implies, but it
| takes time to build things like that.
| epolanski wrote:
| Sure, they pledged 100B under Biden and 200 under trump..to
| produce a bunch of Mac minis.
| iamtheworstdev wrote:
| i guess he's wondering if they finally managed to secure a
| domestic screw producer or they're if importing them from
| China?
| newsclues wrote:
| They have made some machines in the us, like the Mac pro
| alwillis wrote:
| _Apple will spend more than $500 billion in the U.S. over the
| next four years_ --
| https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/02/apple-will-spend-more...
|
| _Apple Manufacturing Academy opens in Detroit on August 19_ --
| https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/07/apple-manufacturing-a...
|
| _Private Cloud Compute: A new frontier for AI privacy in the
| cloud_ -- https://security.apple.com/blog/private-cloud-
| compute/
| evanjrowley wrote:
| Why does the video show them assembling rackmount servers and not
| the Mac Mini?
|
| Is that assembly really in the US? Asking because the woman in
| the first shot appeared to have Chinese letters on the left side
| of her uniform.
| tekacs wrote:
| My guess would be that they're building Apple internal hardware
| as a precursor? So that Apple can be the test customer?
| jjice wrote:
| > "We began shipping advanced AI servers from Houston ahead of
| schedule, and we're excited to accelerate that work even
| further."
| buzzerbetrayed wrote:
| In the second paragraph it says they're producing advanced AI
| servers.
| giobox wrote:
| It's in the post: "In Houston, workers assemble advanced AI
| servers, including logic boards produced onsite, which are then
| used in Apple data centers in the U.S."
| j45 wrote:
| Mac Mini's have had a following for a long time.
|
| Increasing for sure with different uses and possibilities.
| latexr wrote:
| > Why does the video show them assembling rackmount servers and
| not the Mac Mini?
|
| Because the video is of the workers in that specific factory,
| and they'll only start producing the Mac mini there later in
| the year. It's in the title. You can't show real video of
| something which hasn't happened yet.
| mirekrusin wrote:
| They're assembling linux boxes that run their cloud.
| kylehotchkiss wrote:
| > You can't show real video of something which hasn't
| happened yet.
|
| We're going to have to teach our children this concept about
| discerning the AI slop their grandparents flood Facebook with
| :')
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| _> You can't show real video of something which hasn't
| happened yet._
|
| I have seen exactly that, thanks to AI...
| rayiner wrote:
| I assume Foxconn, etc., have a lot of Chinese and Taiwanese
| workers on site to help bootup the facilities. But Apple's
| Houston facility is a real place:
| https://www.google.com/maps/place/8702+Fairbanks+North+Houst...
|
| Foxconn bought it last year:
| https://communityimpact.com/houston/cy-fair-jersey-village/d...
| wredcoll wrote:
| That's... amusing.
| arcfour wrote:
| How would you take a video of something that has yet to happen?
| amelius wrote:
| Ask AI.
| mirekrusin wrote:
| They only have Siri.
| irishcoffee wrote:
| Same difference?
| mikestew wrote:
| Oh, if only that were true...and that's the joke.
| whilenot-dev wrote:
| Interestingly, these exact letters appear to have been removed
| in the photo after the first two paragraphs:
| https://www.apple.com/newsroom/images/2026/02/apple-accelera...
|
| EDIT: a screenshot from the video: https://imgur.com/a/X3t4crC
| rayiner wrote:
| Crazy propaganda!
| neilv wrote:
| Apple PR did what they could with the art they had available
| and the need to pander to a gov't administration, but weren't
| inspired to do it more genuinely?
|
| "Think Different" -> "Think Indifferent"
| cestith wrote:
| Well, they're dealing with an administration indifferent to
| thinking. Everything is emotional.
| tokyobreakfast wrote:
| Are you suggesting Apple is engaged in a massive subterfuge
| where they imported Black and Hispanic actors and hung a US and
| Texas flag on the wall in a Chinese factory as a staged photo
| op? Maybe the factory is really a sound stage.
| SpaceManNabs wrote:
| I understand apple's push for US manufacturing in general but
| what do they mean by AI servers? I thought apple's current AI
| strategy is using other AI models?
| jjice wrote:
| I believe they're choosing to run Google models on their
| hardware.
| tibbydudeza wrote:
| They are using M workstation class chips for inference on their
| own blades since Google's models are meant run on TPU's it
| would not have been difficult to port it.
|
| They also use Anthropic internally (code/marketing/sales) which
| runs their models on Cerebras so they also seem to be agnostic
| so runs on the same Apple hardware.
| snazz wrote:
| Private Cloud Compute uses their own hardware:
| https://security.apple.com/blog/private-cloud-compute/
| jjice wrote:
| Really looking forward to seeing how this ends up, especially
| over the next few years. I knew about their recent Arizona TSMC
| chips in iPhones, but this is nice to see.
| arthurcolle wrote:
| Apple ramping up Mac mini production in Houston to meet demand
| for Clawbots is wild. When were Mac minis a hot commodity before
| three weeks ago?
| bigyabai wrote:
| This is not for Clawdbot, this is a re-run of the 2019 strategy
| where Apple promises to manufacture a low volume of high-margin
| PC enclosures on US soil.
| arthurcolle wrote:
| They mention Mac mini! They have like 3 other desktop lines
| going, and they mentioned the mini!
|
| Also: "In Houston, workers assemble advanced AI servers,
| including logic boards produced onsite, which are then used
| in Apple data centers in the U.S."
|
| Advanced AI servers!
| Aurornis wrote:
| > They mention Mac mini! They have like 3 other desktop
| lines going, and they mentioned the mini!
|
| Mac Mini is their simplest product. It's the natural place
| to start training at a new facility.
|
| > Advanced AI servers!
|
| Yes, they have their own AI servers.
| jeffbee wrote:
| > Mac Mini is their simplest product.
|
| How can it be simpler than the Apple TV?
| LoganDark wrote:
| Do they now? I assume they use them internally for
| something like Private Cloud Compute?
| sigmar wrote:
| >With its next-level AI capabilities, it has become an
| essential tool for everyone from students and aspiring
| creatives to small business owners.
|
| Seems to me this part of the PR release is a reference to
| claudbot/openclaw. What else could it be referring to?
| minimaxir wrote:
| Apple has been taking about Apple Silicon's AI capabilities
| for the past few years, particularly around Apple
| Intelligence.
| gjsman-1000 wrote:
| How about Apple Intelligence having been in almost every
| press release from the last year?
|
| If you genuinely can't find out what they are referring to,
| you've been on HN too long.
| Aurornis wrote:
| > to meet demand for Clawbots is wild
|
| This is not in response to OpenClaw. It takes a long time to
| plan a new manufacturing facility.
|
| The Mac Mini is a natural place to start training at a new
| facility because it's their simplest product.
|
| Mac Minis are also around 1% of Apple's device sales. Even with
| an OpenClaw-inspired burst of sales, it's still a small part of
| their volume.
| gigatexal wrote:
| This is to appease pumpkin potus and his merry band of idiots
|
| Update: For the record I do hate the POTUS. He's ruined our
| reputation around the world. Allowed things like USAID to die
| removing aid from millions leading to many deaths. He's
| incompetent and very stupid which will likely get us killed
| either in some war or in the next pandemic. Tarrifs are a
| tax. Congress raises taxes. If you support his right to tax
| without congress then go live under a king. I'm an American.
| We don't want kings. Need I go on?
|
| And hating POTUS for what he's doing to the country is my
| right as an American. We weren't perfect. But we were at
| least respected. Now the world laughs at us.
|
| He works for me. And you. And he's doing a garbage job at his
| job. Why continue to give him a free pass. Would you give
| someone like this in your team a pass?
|
| Here's hoping his managers (congress) fires him (impeaches)
| him.
| gjsman-1000 wrote:
| So what? Even if you hate who the president is, it is in
| the best interest of everyone that the president does a
| good job. Wanting the president to fail and millions to
| suffer is scorched earth hatred, not strategy.
| rayiner wrote:
| Even if you hate the orange guy, there's something to be
| said for his approach of using threats to achieve results
| instead of carrots like tax breaks.
| gigatexal wrote:
| Haha very telling that this is what you find laudable.
| Onshoring manufacturing ... it's a low margin low skill
| (relative) industry compared to the services and things
| of the modern economy. We import goods made cheaper in
| other countries and benefit from it in consumer
| surplus... that the educated here on HN can invert a tree
| or whatever the latest leet code garbage is being asked
| in interviews but never took and economics class or basic
| ethics is beyond me.
| bastardoperator wrote:
| This President isn't doing a good job on really any
| level. Its not that I want anyone to fail, it's that the
| President today is currently in a state of failure, and
| those failures like enriching himself can have long term
| devastating effects on our society.
| rayiner wrote:
| He's done a great job on immigration. Migrant border
| crossings are at the lowest level in 50 years:
| https://www.pewresearch.org/short-
| reads/2026/02/02/migrant-e.... And we had the first year
| of net negative outmigration in decades.
|
| Now, you might disagree on whether blocking immigration
| from unsuccessful countries is a good thing or not. Maybe
| you disagree that those immigrants will bring the
| problems of their home countries to the U.S. But many
| prior Presidents have promised to do this and until Trump
| they have all failed.
| gigatexal wrote:
| Obama managed to deport many without the vitriol or the
| killing of American citizens. Are you a one issue voter?
| Just showing a blind eye to everything so long as no
| brown folks cross into this country?
| gigatexal wrote:
| Business will continue to business. POTUS is a failed
| businessman many times over who only increased his wealth
| by whoring himself to our enemies be extorting our
| allies.
|
| I'm on the right side of history. Are you?
| kshacker wrote:
| The same thing could be said after polishing with AI and it
| will be a fact
|
| As stated, it is offensive
|
| You need to do appeasement as needed. Business is business.
| gigatexal wrote:
| Your ability to rationalize would make you a king in a
| true failed state where might makes right and appeasement
| actually works. Stand for something or you'll fall for
| anything like justifying the moron in chief.
| jajuuka wrote:
| I think there was a rush during the early Intel transition
| because they were dirt cheap computers you can upgrade yourself
| and even dual boot Windows. I feel like there was another big
| bump for them as a set top boxes to run XBMC or something.
| Might be wrong though. M1 release also saw the Mini's be a
| cheap entry point to seeing what Apple Silicon could do.
| mikepurvis wrote:
| Even to this day there aren't really a ton of options for a
| non-devkit, non-router arm64 machine that you can use as a
| desktop workstation.
| al_borland wrote:
| The first Intel Mac minis came out in the era of Front Row,
| Apple's attempt to turn every Mac into a media center
| computer. They had IR sensors and remotes. I had one hooked
| up to my TV, which was a big step up from the first gen
| AppleTV.
|
| Plex started as a Mac-only XBMC fork during this era. There
| were also apps like Remote Buddy which let you control pretty
| much everything with the simple remote that came with the
| Mac. Apparently Remote Buddy still exists and works with the
| current gen Siri Remote.
| Fergusonb wrote:
| They're definitely more popular right now, but they've been a
| winner since M1.
|
| Great performance, quiet, efficient.
|
| It would be tough to get a windows machine at that price that
| gets anywhere close on performance, especially if you consider
| the cost of electricity.
|
| Great parent/grandparent machines, home servers.
| bigyabai wrote:
| > It would be tough to get a windows machine at that price
| that gets anywhere close on performance
|
| Not _that_ tough. I paid $299 for a Ryzen 5800h mini PC last
| year, which roughly lands in the same performance bracket.
|
| Would have considered the Mac Mini, but the AMD box has much
| better Linux support.
| alwillis wrote:
| > a Ryzen 5800h mini PC last year, which roughly lands in
| the same performance bracket [as a Mac mini].
|
| Not really. And this is before the M5 Mac mini which ships
| later this year.
|
| Putting it together in desktop-mini form factors:
|
| - Raw CPU: M4 is much faster single-core, generally faster
| multi-core at lower power.
|
| - GPU: M4's iGPU is roughly 2x+ Vega 8 and more modern.
|
| - Memory subsystem: M4 has far higher bandwidth and unified
| memory, ideal for integrated GPU and many modern workloads.
|
| - Efficiency/noise: M4 wins by a large margin; much higher
| perf per watt.
|
| - Compatibility: 5800H wins if you need bare-metal x86 OSes
| like FreeBSD or specific x86-only software stacks.
|
| - 5800H: 35-54 W configurable TDP in laptops; mini-PC
| implementations often run it fairly hot to maintain clocks.
|
| - M4 in Mac mini: ~24 W base TDP, ~40 W boost, but getting
| clearly higher performance per watt.
| caminante wrote:
| Let's assume the 5800H consumed 50W and the mini consumed
| 0W and both ran 100% utilization all year at $0.20/kWh.
|
| The mini would save $87/year. That's a 3.5y breakeven
| assuming no reinvestment.
| caminante wrote:
| Even if the mini is more power efficient at $600 base,
| saving $300 upfront pushes out the breakeven point.
| paul7986 wrote:
| Love my Mac Minis..great computers to connect to a TV for a full
| Internet experience on your TV.
| thinkingtoilet wrote:
| Others need to follow. It's strange that we don't view the
| manufacturing of advanced electronics as a matter of national
| security.
| mattnewton wrote:
| The government is slowly waking up to how important chips are
| and how far behind domestic sources have fallen from foreign
| (mostly Chinese and Taiwanese) sources. That's what the 2022
| CHIPS act was about.
|
| These things just take a lot of time, there are tremendous
| headwinds to fight, and the US government + US media
| increasingly seems unable to see through projects past the next
| election cycle.
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| What folks don't talk about, is that the _reason_ for all the
| offshoring, is good old-fashioned American Greed(tm).
|
| Lots of billionaires in the US, got that way, by exporting
| all their production to China. Because they did it, lots of
| lower-tier people had to do the same, or go out of business.
|
| Since we worship billionaires, that little bit never seems to
| get mentioned, as it makes them look bad.
|
| The only cure is to cost some of those billionaires money.
|
| Ain't gonna happen.
| hypeatei wrote:
| [flagged]
| s-y wrote:
| Your point being?
| hypeatei wrote:
| It's all ass-kissing and not meaningful. Trump's famous line
| is always "in two weeks we'll do it" so tech leaders have
| caught on. Just promise a bunch and say "soon"
| s-y wrote:
| You are full of hatred. Try to see the world without the
| political glasses. Sun glasses at night are douchy.
| gridder wrote:
| Please enlighten us about your hatred and political (sun)
| glasses free vision
| hypeatei wrote:
| Yes I hate fascists, thanks for noticing. Perhaps you
| need to take off the blinders.
| philipallstar wrote:
| Those sound like good things. I'm not sure why your second
| paragraph sounds like the opposite.
| bigyabai wrote:
| They're cursory gestures at best, and stark condemnations of
| US manufacturing capacity at worst. The Mac Mini and Mac Pro
| are not complex or dense electronics in the slightest.
| They're carrier enclosures for TSMC technology, you could
| probably make them in Siberia if you wanted to.
|
| The hard part is manufacturing Apple's high-volume hardware,
| namely the iPhone. _That_ is not anywhere close to being
| onshored, and Apple seemingly has no interest in even
| attempting it if Indian labor is still an option.
|
| As Tim Cook put it: "In the US, you could have a meeting of
| tooling engineers, and I'm not sure we could fill the room.
| In China, you could fill multiple football fields..."
| hypeatei wrote:
| Currying favor with fascists is NOT good. What has
| meaningfully changed for onshoring to make sense
| economically? Nothing. All that's happened is an executive
| came into power who threatens tariffs and other retaliatory
| action via the DOJ / DHS / FCC if you don't do what Trump
| says. It's embarrassing and frankly insane that our business
| leaders continue to stay silent, have dinners at the
| Whitehouse, and put out puff pieces like this.
|
| Mark Zuckerberg made up pledged "investment" numbers on the
| spot at one of their dinners and was caught on hot mic
| admitting it. This is hilariously corrupt and will not result
| in a US manufacturing boom.
| buzzerbetrayed wrote:
| Let's say you're right and Apple is only doing this because of
| Trump.
|
| Then Trump did a _good_ thing. You're inadvertently praising
| Trump in your attempt to slander Tim Cook.
| techpression wrote:
| Didn't know they were also pushing education so heavily, I mean
| it makes sense, but still great to see that they don't expect
| skills and knowledge to appear out of thin air and is putting
| money to improving it.
| AIorNot wrote:
| Better than nothing- assemble things made in asian countries in
| usa, just a step above boxing
| lysace wrote:
| Why is that better?
| rayiner wrote:
| Because it's important to have the domestic capacity to build
| the most sophisticated products. Political power is
| downstream of manufacturing capacity. The countries that have
| sophisticated enough centrifuges that they can refine weapons
| grade plutonium derive an incredible amount of political
| power from that fact.
|
| Remember that, after World War I, the U.S. had most
| demobilized its military. The Japanese had more aircraft
| carriers than the U.S. in 1941. That's why Japan attacked
| Pearl Harbor--it thought it could win!
|
| But while the U.S. was weak militarily, it had been the
| largest industrial producer since the late 19th century.
| Within a couple of years of Pearl Harbor, the U.S. had built
| a bigger air force and navy than the rest of the world
| combined.
|
| That's why it's better to be able to make Mac Minis in
| Houston. Because you can repurpose those facilities to
| produce electronics for warships instead of having to buy
| parts from countries you might be at war with.
| d--b wrote:
| My wild guess is that Cook cut a deal with the IRS so that they
| build in the US, but get tax benefits other companies don't get,
| so that it looks good on the administration - like the tariffs
| are working - and still benefits Apple.
|
| I don't think Apple wouldn't find a cheaper place to manufacture
| Macs than the US. The US is literally the most expensive place to
| build.
|
| That, or the Mac Minis are 100% asembled by robots, which is also
| a possibility.
| nessbot wrote:
| Can one "cut a deal" with the IRS without it ending up in
| legislation (i.e. tax law)?
| CursedSilicon wrote:
| Not without a big beautiful bribe [1] I assume
|
| [1] https://www.theverge.com/news/737757/apple-president-
| donald-...
| nessbot wrote:
| Yeah, not denying the bribing. But that doesn't change tax
| law. It still needsto be passed by congress. Does it affect
| enforcement, though? maybe
| CursedSilicon wrote:
| So much of what this admin has done "needed" to be
| approved by congress. They're complicit in the overreach
| of power
| mattnewton wrote:
| Legally no, but in practice the president has been trying to
| assert the power to unilaterally levy taxes, even in spite of
| the supreme court ruling that you need the legislature to
| pass a tax. People still paid the tariffs. I would be
| extremely suprised if that's the only place this admin is
| trying to tax by fiat, and tax policy enforcemetn is far less
| visible than consumer tariffs.
| null_deref wrote:
| Non political genuine question, is building in the USA more
| expensive than let's say Germany?
| runako wrote:
| No. But you have to understand that American political
| rhetoric only allows for things to be made either in the US
| or China (and occasionally Mexico). In that framework, yes
| the US is the most expensive place to make things.
| bdangubic wrote:
| by IRS you mean Mar a Largo?
| giobox wrote:
| We already know exactly what the deal is, no need to speculate.
| Apple got large tariff exemptions in exchange for supporting
| Trump's "Made in America" agenda:
|
| > https://www.wsj.com/tech/apple-invest-american-
| manufacturing...
|
| > https://appleinsider.com/articles/25/08/06/apple-exempt-
| from...
| random3 wrote:
| Gotta love PR embracing the many definitions of "made in"
| givemeethekeys wrote:
| Surely, someone high up asked, "What is the least amount of
| work we have to do in order to not pay tariffs?"
| jesse_dot_id wrote:
| i_dont_believe_you.gif
| general_reveal wrote:
| Was it such a sin that our electronics were made in the East? Was
| the west truly deprived and the east really abused? It's nearly
| the end of of our lifetime (+-100 years is a margin of error), so
| the fact for our lifetimes is that our electronics got made
| there.
|
| What is the final judgement about this?
| TulliusCicero wrote:
| "Sin" is the wrong framing, but outsourcing most of your
| capability to actually make stuff can definitely cause problems
| for a country.
|
| For example, on a military level, the US is concerned about how
| rapidly China is catching up in naval capacity, China is
| building new warships far faster than the US can. And it's hard
| not to notice that China's overall shipbuilding capacity is
| more than 200x higher than America's.
|
| The US has a lot of pride over having been "the arsenal of
| democracy" in WW2, and it's well known that a huge part of why
| the US was effective in that war was sheer mass: the US simply
| made much more war 'stuff' than any other combatant. But if the
| US was to get in a shooting war with China today, it would
| likely be China that would enjoy an advantage in production
| scale, with the US trying to make do with fewer vehicles and
| munitions.
| general_reveal wrote:
| Tactical error then. I suppose I was hoping someone would
| make the human plea that the barter was mostly a net good for
| our lifetimes. Our neighbors made our clothes. You suggest
| tactically this a problem, but I'm wondering if we managed to
| live peacefully and goodly this way?
| notepad0x90 wrote:
| The same reason Europeans are moving away from US tech right
| now. You can't bury your head in the sand and pretend
| geopolitics is imaginary.
| tedd4u wrote:
| It doesn't say the Mini will be exclusively produced at this US
| facility. I wonder in say 2 years what % will be "produced" in
| the US? 1%? 0.1%?
| mcmcmc wrote:
| They'll make a gold one there every year as tribute to Trump
| alwillis wrote:
| > It doesn't say the Mini will be exclusively produced at this
| US facility.
|
| What's likely to happen is Mac minis for North America will be
| made in Houston. Otherwise, the ones for the rest of the world
| will be made at the same facilities they are now.
|
| Just like iPhones for the US are made in India; iPhones for the
| rest of the world are made in China.
| kombine wrote:
| Wasn't going to buy one before, not going to buy one now.
| pama wrote:
| Mac minis are sold out in NYC these days because everyone gets
| them to try out openclaw. Even if this move by Apple is unrelated
| to the recent demand, it certainly was timed right for the policy
| and market makers.
| locusofself wrote:
| why were mac minis so popular for this compared to any other
| machine, cloud VPS or local VM?
| llmslave wrote:
| so you can use the full operating system
| Phemist wrote:
| More importantly iMessage
| FitchApps wrote:
| And get hacked via prompt injection
| piskov wrote:
| That's why people buy separate machines / use VPS.
| amelius wrote:
| Because these people have Apple IDs, and they need a machine
| that can access their various accounts.
| retired wrote:
| The Mac mini has a very good value for money if you need raw
| performance in a small silent package. Frequently available
| for between $399 - $499 discounted.
|
| A VPS that can perform like a Mac mini will likely cost the
| same as a Mac mini in 12 months time.
| piskov wrote:
| Openclaw is running via api. The reason people are bying
| separate machines is for security isolation and 24/7 power
| -- performance is irrelevant.
| hackingonempty wrote:
| Macs have "unified memory" meaning the GPU uses the same
| memory as the CPU and minis can have up to 64 gigs. So its a
| lot faster than running on a CPU and a lot cheaper than any
| other GPU based rig with similar memory.
| mholm wrote:
| Most openclaw users are not running the models locally.
| matthewfcarlson wrote:
| It allows your Claw to access all your iCloud data easily
| like reminders and iMessage for example
| sigmar wrote:
| It's so funny to me that HN seems convinced that artists have a
| sudden renewed interest in desktop computers, when LLMs have
| been driving mac mini sales for more than a year
| adamgordonbell wrote:
| Apple is very tied to Chinese manufacturing in a way that is hard
| to replicate in US.
|
| They will agree to make some high margin simple to assemble thing
| in the US to appease government, but if it goes as well as last
| time, they will stop as soon as they can.
|
| In china they were often able to iterate on designs and have
| custom screws and other parts made and ramped up in very short
| times. Something about having the whole supply chain in one place
| and very motivated and it all fell apart when tried to move to
| US.
|
| So things that took weeks became hard on anytime line.. per Apple
| in China book.
| NetMageSCW wrote:
| The press release says they've been making their own servers
| there successfully so it doesn't seem like there is a reason
| they would stop Mini manufacturing quickly.
| modeless wrote:
| They did the exact same thing with Mac Pro in 2019. I notice
| they don't say they'll stop manufacturing the Mac Mini
| anywhere else. This is a political thing and will change with
| the political winds.
| nutjob2 wrote:
| Two different things. They do not have margin to preserve on
| the servers.
|
| If I was interested in "performative local manufacturing" I'd
| also build my own servers, it has the least economic impact.
| vsgherzi wrote:
| Just as manufacturing in China took time manufacturing in the
| US will take time. The US has lost much of its skilled labor
| and mom and pop parts shop. If we have any hope of re-
| invigorating this some large company is going to have to bite
| the bullet. Chicken and egg problem imo. I'll leave whether
| this is worth it or not up to the economists.
| tencentshill wrote:
| It needs a careful long term approach from real leaders. Not
| a run-and-gun, corrupt, chaotic president throwing tariffs
| (taxes) up on a whim.
| ljsprague wrote:
| Real leaders like ... Kamala Harris?
| OsrsNeedsf2P wrote:
| Was Kamala campaigning on bringing manufacturing to
| Texas?
| dropofwill wrote:
| Probably referring to the CHIPs Act? Technically Biden.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHIPS_and_Science_Act
| tokyobreakfast wrote:
| The orange guy managed to do it where others failed or
| didn't even attempt to.
| daymanstep wrote:
| Managed to do what?
| tokyobreakfast wrote:
| Build products in the US. Those jobs Steve Jobs told
| Obama are "never coming back".
| daymanstep wrote:
| Last time I checked, manufacturing employment hasn't gone
| up since Jan 2025.
| xienze wrote:
| He's at least getting companies to pretend like they're
| going to try. That's a starting point. Before, the best
| you'd get out of these CEOs is "LOL those jobs are never
| coming back, learn to code or whatever else hasn't been
| outsourced fully yet."
| 0_____0 wrote:
| There is no contingent in the US federal government that
| has a coherent plan for doing what you're talking about.
|
| The investment in capability that is necessary to build the
| next generation of manufacturing capabilities in the US is
| simply not within the public imagination.
| 9dev wrote:
| Are you sure that's actually what you want though, competing
| with China in skilled labor?
| vsgherzi wrote:
| Of course I do. Competition can only be good here.
| rockskon wrote:
| No amount of time will let the U.S. - a country of 348
| million people - replicate what China - a country with 1.4
| _billion_ people - a can do with manufacturing.
|
| This isn't "working harder".
|
| This isn't "rebuilding infrastructure".
|
| This isn't "training people in trades".
|
| The numbers are so cartoonishly lopsided as to be a non-
| starter for categorically replacing Chinese manufacturing.
| throwaway894345 wrote:
| There's no world in which large scale manufacturing is
| returning to the US. Not only are our labor costs
| dramatically higher than in east asia, but we also lack the
| logistics infrastructure to quickly produce components and
| get them to their next stage of assembly quickly. And we
| can't just build that stuff because we don't have a
| totalitarian government that can just bulldoze farms and
| houses to run a highway or railway. We also are less
| interested in pollution, which raises the sticker price on US
| manufacturing.
|
| If we're serious about it, we are going to have to commit
| ourselves to economy-tanking tariffs (like thousands of
| percents) for many decades until the US worker is as poor as
| the Vietnamese worker.
| apercu wrote:
| Jebus. "It's hard to manufacture in the US."
|
| Yes.
|
| That's what rebuilding capability looks like.
|
| China built dense supply chains over decades. Of course
| iteration was faster.
|
| Hard isn't a reason not to do it.
|
| It's what happens when you've optimized for margin and optics
| and performance instead of resilience.
| nutjob2 wrote:
| No, it's local manufacturing theater.
|
| The US does a lot of manufacturing, second only to China, but
| not low margin stuff that isn't economic.
|
| Trying to "bring back" that sort of thing is idiotic and is
| entirely performative and induced by the current incompetent
| administration.
|
| China is a genuine threat but the right solution is to move
| it to other friendlier countries instead of losing money
| trying to do it in the US.
|
| Stupid is a reason not to do it.
| deaddodo wrote:
| This is the part that blows my mind. People seem to think
| the US is incapable of and does no manufacturing. It is the
| second largest manufacturer[1], and has a capacity about
| 65% of what China does. Which is 350% of the next largest
| manufacturing country.
|
| What they stopped manufacturing was menial and low-end
| product; because it's not price-effective to have 100
| Americans sit on an assembly line and solder SMT components
| for $7-18/hr. Instead, those potential workers pivoted into
| service jobs and office work.
|
| 1 - https://www.safeguardglobal.com/resources/blog/top-10-m
| anufa...
| delfinom wrote:
| Yes/no.
|
| China at this point is hard in automation, beyond
| anything the US has. China is well past the peak of
| sweatshops.
|
| As someone in the manufacturing space in the US, the
| biggest issue we have in the US is that manufacturing
| continues to die. Any manufacturing we have left is the
| old guard dying off. It comes from a range of issues from
| companies refusing to invest in younger employees, to the
| cost of real estate (both buy or rent) for commercial
| properties being absurd..
| CPLX wrote:
| That's just not the reason though.
|
| The reason we can't do manufacturing is because Wall
| Street demands capital light business models.
|
| That, in turn, is an outcome of being the global reserve
| currency.
| apercu wrote:
| Fair, but there is tons of HIGH END manufacturing we
| could do that we just don't, even though there is every
| incentive to do so.
| rayiner wrote:
| > What they stopped manufacturing was menial and low-end
| product
|
| This statement is as inaccurate as the comment you're
| trying to debunk. The fact is that China leveraged it's
| low-end manufacturing work to work its way up the chain
| and now is the leader in many areas:
| https://itif.org/publications/2025/09/23/how-china-is-
| outper.... E.g. China has been investing heavily in radar
| technology and as a result has air to air missiles with
| comparable range to the U.S. https://en.defence-
| ua.com/weapon_and_tech/why_the_us_is_alar...
|
| There are synergies to having the high end stuff and the
| low end stuff in the same place. The story of IBM
| developing System 360 mentions the benefit from the
| ladies who wound the wire core memory and the guys who
| designed the computer on the same campus in New York. We
| gave that up when we outsourced the "menial" stuff
| abroad.
| WillPostForFood wrote:
| The US manufacturing situation is much worse than you
| suggest, and is top heavy with low margin boring industrial
| stuff. Largest sector for US manufacturing is Chemicals,
| which includes fertilizer, petrochemicals, pesticides, and
| some pharma. The second largest sector is Tobacco, Food,
| and Beverages.
|
| I think some more "low margin" computer and chip
| manufacturing would be healthy.
| AngryData wrote:
| It is apparently economic to do so in China and apparently
| any other place you want to outsource it to. Does smaller
| and one-off productions have as high of margins as high
| speed automated stamping machines running 24/7? No. But
| that doesn't mean it isn't profitable at all.
|
| And quite frankly, who gives a fuck if top owners and
| investors get maximum returns, boo hoo they got 4% return
| instead of 8%, that is still far better than the average
| working class's deal. Our entire problem is a suffering
| middle and lower classes that need decent work, they will
| still be happy even if the product they make is a bit lower
| margin because they are paid hourly, not paid by dividends
| and stock options which is where all the higher margins
| profits go. Average citizens pay has not correlated with
| increased company profits, and increased company profits
| isn't what makes society stable, so the investor class is
| going to have to suck it up and take the hit unless they
| want their entire house of cards to collapse.
| CPLX wrote:
| Yes you've hit on the reason. Very few people understand
| this.
|
| The reason we don't invest in manufacturing is because of
| requirements for return on capital.
|
| Ask yourself why GM is doing massive stock buybacks in
| the era of global transition to electric cars. Why aren't
| they using these huge sums of cash to invest in the next
| generation of products and instead literally just sending
| the money out the door?
| tokyobreakfast wrote:
| > In china they were often able to iterate on designs and have
| custom screws and other parts made
|
| Unless of course you need aerospace or space-qualified screws
| in which case they are definitely coming from the US.
|
| Where China was successful is volume; Apple makes hundreds of
| millions of iPhones a year (I was shocked at that number) which
| is orders of magnitude more than computers. Kind of hard to
| deliver those numbers when you can't keep slaves on call in a
| dormitory.
| embedding-shape wrote:
| > Unless of course you need aerospace or space-qualified
| screws
|
| Ok... Is that what they're using to build Mac Minis and is
| that what they need to iterate on typically?
| tokyobreakfast wrote:
| China is not the only source of the world's screws. Unless
| you mean cheap aluminum screws where the threads
| immediately deform.
| bigbuppo wrote:
| The best thing about manufacturing in China is that they
| will make exactly what you specify. The worst thing about
| manufacturing in China is that they will make exactly
| what you specify.
| tredre3 wrote:
| And America isn't the only source of the world's
| aerospace or space-qualified screws, so what was the
| point of your comment? China is fully capable of
| producing high quality screws.
| ladberg wrote:
| > Unless of course you need aerospace or space-qualified
| screws in which case they are definitely coming from the US.
|
| Are you claiming somehow that China would be incapable of
| making these? Or just admitting that the USG generally
| restricts such contracts to be sourced from the US only? And
| what does this have to do with Apple?
| throwaway27448 wrote:
| > Kind of hard to deliver those numbers when you can't keep
| slaves on call in a dormitory.
|
| Or extensive automation, of course. We're alienated from the
| supply chain probably by design.
| RobotToaster wrote:
| > Unless of course you need aerospace or space-qualified
| screws in which case they are definitely coming from the US.
|
| So that's why macs are so expensive.
| dietr1ch wrote:
| Well, if your Mac mini is to be painted Space Gray then the
| only way to go is to put in there a few $40 space-qualified
| screws made in the US to justify the price increase.
| onlyrealcuzzo wrote:
| You could prototype assembly in China, then have everything
| ready to go, and do mass assembly elsewhere.
| xuki wrote:
| Mac mini is a relatively low volume product for Apple, the
| margin hit would not be consequential to their bottom line.
| I'll believe it when they start making iPhone in the US.
| 0xWTF wrote:
| Came here with a similar comment, pasting here to avoid another
| top-level comment tree.
|
| ====
|
| I bought a mac mini a year ago for $599. Personally, I'm pretty
| sure I would pay another $50 if it said "Made in the USA" on
| it. Maybe $80. Not sure I would pay $100.
|
| But I worry this will prove to be like when Daimler bought
| Chrysler and shipped the Crossfire fully assembled except the
| rims, which were bolted on in the US so they could say it was
| "made in the USA". They only sold 76,014 and now Daimler
| extracted itself from Chrysler, so maintaining them has become
| a bespoke hobby.
| GeekyBear wrote:
| > Apple is very tied to Chinese manufacturing
|
| Apple (and all the other multinationals) are tied to
| manufacturing in nations with cheap labor.
|
| China is far from the only nation with cheap labor.
|
| > India now accounts for approximately 25 percent of global
| iPhone production, up from single digits just a few years ago.
|
| https://manufacturing-today.com/news/apple-moves-quarter-of-...
| ruraljuror wrote:
| Good point about the supply chain; and it seems like most
| responses mistakenly disagree with you.
|
| Thomas Friedman talks about this after his most recent visit to
| China. Where China excels is through rapid supply chain
| development by fierce regional competition among several
| (state-supported/sponsored/seeded?) competitors.
| ijustlovemath wrote:
| Helene survivor here. What's wild to me is that, regardless of
| the small scale of this facility, it's only a few hundred meters
| from a 1% flood zone: https://msc.fema.gov/portal/search
|
| The address I found for the facility is 9101 Windmill Park Lane
| Hudson, TX 77064
|
| This seems ill advised given recent events like Hurricane Harvey
| apercu wrote:
| Weirdly the first thing I thought was "Why Texas"?
| mgh95 wrote:
| Likely a combination of business-friendly policies (low tax,
| no employer payroll tax, etc.) and proximity to ports.
| Houston is the 6th [1] largest port in the USA.
|
| [1] https://pangea-network.com/busiest-and-biggest-ports-in-
| the-...
| apercu wrote:
| I agree with you on all of these except: low tax
|
| I grew up in DFW.
|
| My house in WI is assessed at a significantly higher value
| than my siblings house in Ft Worth.
|
| My 2025 property tax bill ~$5k, my 2025 state income tax -
| not gonna publish it here but not all that significant.
|
| Sibling in Texas property tax bill: ~$14k. Significantly
| higher than my state income tax + property tax.
|
| Also, I don't have to live in Texas.
| ViscountPenguin wrote:
| Given that this is being done in large part to appease
| Trump the fact that it's a red state surely has something
| to do with it too.
| lysace wrote:
| That's a good sign it's not a serious long-term effort.
| Onshoring cosplay?
| Dig1t wrote:
| They will build to a much higher standard than normal US
| residential construction, as they do with most commercial
| buildings. Many people do not understand the vast difference
| between residential construction quality and the quality that
| mega corps get. I personally watched Apple build their new
| campus in Austin (I have daily progress pictures of the
| construction site, I work there), everything is solid concrete.
| These buildings can withstand any type of hurricane.
|
| Flooding is also something which can be mitigated: build
| foundations to be taller, work with the topography to avoid the
| path of water, and build drainage solutions. You should see the
| drainage field that Apple built for their campus in Austin,
| it's absolutely massive and can divert an incredible amount of
| water.
| boznz wrote:
| When it floods, they can hold their hands up and say "well we
| tried".. then get back to business as usual in China
| vsgherzi wrote:
| Is no one else interested in the "assemble advanced AI servers,
| including logic boards produced onsite, which are then used in
| Apple data centers in the U.S." in the pictures? Are they using
| nvidia GPUS? Their own silicon? Is there any data out there on
| what these servers are like? I don't think we've ever seen a
| picture of them before.
| luketaylor wrote:
| WSJ published a video yesterday with the first pictures of
| those servers:
| https://twitter.com/yiningkarlli/status/2026176857541075274
| vsgherzi wrote:
| man what I would give for one of those servers
| jsheard wrote:
| There's 8 big heatsinks in each server, I wonder if that's 8
| independent M-Ultras sharing a motherboard.
| doug_durham wrote:
| I believe it is the nodes for their private compute cloud for
| inference. They have described these in the past. It's all
| Apple chips.
| wdb wrote:
| Next, are European made Apple devices?
| flumpcakes wrote:
| The woman in the pink smock-like clothing:
|
| In the video there are Chinese characters on the clothing above
| the front pocket area. In a picture of her later on in the news
| article the Chinese writing is gone.
|
| Has it been photoshopped out for the press release images?
| bangonkeyboard wrote:
| Good catch.
| SilverElfin wrote:
| https://appleinsider.com/articles/26/02/24/apples-us-mac-min...
|
| > Apple's work on a new Mac mini factory in Houston wasn't a
| quickly-conceived plan to appease President Donald Trump. The
| reality is that Apple had a plan ready to do this long before the
| demands started.
| yndoendo wrote:
| While shopping I look where items are produced and by whom
| company. When I see an item is manufactured in Texas I put it
| back on the shelf and keep walking. That State is too politically
| corrupt for me to financially support, same with Florida.
| tombert wrote:
| Don't most big tech companies have an office in Dallas or
| Austin? I remember that the MS campus was huge when I lived in
| Dallas.
|
| If "can't have been made in any capacity in Texas" is your
| criteria that might be pretty difficult.
| whalesalad wrote:
| Has anyone seen this documentary?
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Factory
| jimt1234 wrote:
| What's the over-under for Trump mentioning this in the State Of
| The Union speech tonight? The timing of this release can't be a
| coincidence.
| seydor wrote:
| Good but they should be named 'Mac Donald' or Trump Mini or
| something and it should be engraved with gold letters. And they
| are too small, they should be huge
| j45 wrote:
| In addition to Mac Mini, hoping more Mac Studios are able to be
| built including more regular updates.
|
| Either of these devices (per watt of computing power) could
| become a home appliance pretty easily.
| tamimio wrote:
| This feels like tariff evasion tactics, I am not against it tho,
| I think apple is handling it well.
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