Is it possible to bring iPhone production to America?

Cue the flag waving.
Cue the campaign slogans.
Cue the “Let’s build it here!” chants.

And then… Reality.

Apple makes over 220 million iPhones a year. 
That’s not a product – it’s an industrial miracle wrapped in aluminum and silicon.
And the idea that it could all be built on U.S. soil is currently science fiction… but what could make it real?

The current situation…

China didn’t just win the manufacturing game on cost – it won on capability… on ecosystem… on decades of investment, scale, talent, and iteration. 
There’s a place called iPhone City. 
Not a nickname – an actual massive complex where tens of thousands of people make iPhones at scale. 
Think Boston… but more people… and for just one product line in one company.
If a country wants to replicate that, it has to imagine shutting down a large city to build nothing but phones (24 hours a day… seven days a week).

That’s the kind of (current) scale we’re talking about.

Even India – the country many are betting on as “the new China” – took over a decade to build the capacity to make 35 million iPhones a year. 
It’s progress… but still, just a slice of Apple’s global pie.
And if you believe we do this without people power but through automation, just know that as sophisticated as China has become in automation… they have yet to be able to affordably automate current iPhone production needs… let alone future ones.
So yes, Apple is investing $500 billion in the U.S. over the next four years.
That’s not nothing.
But let’s not confuse data centers and coding bootcamps with supply chain sovereignty.

This isn’t political. It’s physics.

And yet… the dream persists.
Not because it’s doable… but because it matters. 
Symbolism matters. 
Strategic independence matters. 

Maybe making one iPhone in America matters – even if it costs more and doesn’t scale.

While the hardware story is rooted in global excellence, the software side?

Let’s talk Siri.

Remember when Apple practically invented the voice assistant category?
Internally, Apple engineers dubbed their AI team “AIMLess.”

Not great.

Internal turf wars… lack of urgency… parallel teams working in silos. 
One group spent two years removing the word “Hey” from “Hey Siri…” And that was the big win?
Meanwhile, Amazon launches Alexa+. 
Google’s Gemini is feeling borderline sentient. 
And have you used ChatGPT’s voice mode (it’s a “wow!”)

So here’s where we are.

America can’t (yet) build an iPhone.
And Apple can’t (yet) build an AI assistant that feels like 2025.

Can both of those things change?

Yes.
But not by accident… Not without vision… Not without blowing up the playbook.
Because in a world where everyone’s sprinting into the future, Apple has to decide:

Do they still want to be a strategic follower… or the company that creatively invents our future… 

This is what Elias Makos and I discussed on CJAD 800 AM. Listen in right here.

Before you go… ThinkersOne is a new way for organizations to buy bite-sized and personalized thought leadership video content (live and recorded) from the best Thinkers in the world. If you’re looking to add excitement and big smarts to your meetings, corporate events, company off-sites, “lunch & learns” and beyond, check it out.