Apple’s Made-in-USA Mac Will Be Built in Texas

Walt Mossberg: Will there be an Apple product ever made again in the United States?

Tim Cook: I want there to be.

Walt: You what?

Tim: I want there to be.

Walt: You want there to be. — Apple CEO Tim Cook and Walt Mossberg at D10, May 2012

When Apple announced its intention to manufacture one of its existing Mac lines exclusively in the U.S. last December, the company didn’t say which line, or where in the country it planned to build it. Now, some five months later, the answer to one of those questions has finally emerged.

During a Tuesday appearance before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed the state in which its Made-in-USA Mac will be manufactured: Texas.

“We’re investing $100 million to build a Mac product line here in the U.S.,” Cook said. “The product will be assembled in Texas, include components made in Illinois and Florida, and rely on equipment produced in Kentucky and Michigan.”

Apple’s pledge to build some Macs in the U.S. doesn’t mean that the company is setting up its own production facilities. Cook has said in the past that Apple will work with manufacturing partners on this particular effort. And now that he has disclosed the state in which Mac production will be handled, the identity of Apple’s likely manufacturing partner is becoming clearer, as well.

Foxconn operates plants in Texas and has long handled a lot of Apple’s hardware production and assembly. Recently, the company said it was expanding its existing manufacturing operations in the U.S. to meet the needs of certain unnamed customers. Not definitive proof that Foxconn will manufacture Apple’s Made-in-USA Mac, but certainly a clear indication that it might.

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