Tim Cook avoided Trump's full tariffs by shifting iPhone assembly to India and announcing a $600B U.S. investment plan

Tim Cook pulled Apple back from the edge this year without inventing anything ￰0￱ Trump’s unpredictable tariffs, a court case that threatened $20 billion in annual revenue, and criticism over weak AI products, Apple’s problems stacked up ￰1￱ April, the company’s value dropped to $2.6 trillion, wiping away its crown as the world’s most valuable ￰2￱ months later, it passed $4 trillion, without a breakthrough device. That’s more than 10x the size of Apple when Tim took over 14 years ￰3￱ didn’t need a shiny new product to get ￰4￱ critics kept asking why Apple wasn’t first to jump into big AI features, Tim focused on keeping the machine ￰5￱ strategy wasn’t ￰6￱ made it political, legal, and operational, and it ￰7￱ the scenes, Apple survived tariffs, sidestepped antitrust fallout, and convinced users to keep spending on ￰8￱ was enough to avoid ￰9￱ dodges Trump’s tariff threats without giving much up The worst moment came on “Liberation Day” in ￰10￱ announced massive tariffs on Chinese-made ￰11￱ most iPhones are still made in China, Apple’s stock nosedived over 20% in a few ￰12￱ had already gone after the company’s supply chain before, saying it should come back to the U.

S. “We’re not interested in you building in ￰13￱ can take care of themselves,” Trump said in ￰14￱ Tim had already started moving iPhone assembly to India years ￰15￱ when Trump fired the tariff gun, Apple was able to quietly ship India-made iPhones to the ￰16￱ escape ￰17￱ supply chain, built over 20+ years in Asia by Tim himself, isn’t moving back to America. There’s no cheap, skilled labor base in the ￰18￱ can replace what exists in China, India, and ￰19￱ Trump liked headlines more than outcomes, Tim leaned into ￰20￱ 2018, Apple promised to “invest $350 billion” in the ￰21￱ five years, spending they already planned to do anyway, according to ￰22￱ 2019, facing more tariffs, Tim gave Trump a tour of a Mac Pro plant in Texas.

“Today I opened a major Apple manufacturing plant in Texas,” Trump ￰23￱ plant had actually been open since ￰24￱ said ￰25￱ August this year, Tim did it ￰26￱ time, the number was $600 billion in ￰27￱ ￰28￱ ￰29￱ of the spending was already ￰30￱ made the announcement standing next to Trump in the Oval Office, handing him a gold-plated ￰31￱ included a $2.5 billion deal with Corning in Kentucky, a $500 million rare-earth deal, and some AI server manufacturing in ￰32￱ none of it was about making iPhones in the ￰33￱ liked what he ￰34￱ got exempted from full electronics ￰35￱ smaller China tariffs were cut in ￰36￱ escapes Google antitrust ruling and calms investors with iPhone 17 Then came the Google case.

A judge was reviewing whether Google’s deal with Apple, to remain the default search engine on Safari, was ￰37￱ that contract were struck down, Apple could lose over $20 billion a year. That’s about 20% of Apple’s operating ￰38￱ didn’t show ￰39￱ sent Eddy Cue, Apple’s services ￰40￱ told the judge he had “lost a lot of sleep” over possibly losing the ￰41￱ warned that the tech market moves fast enough to sort itself ￰42￱ judge agreed, calling the market “already shifting” due to AI, and said ending search deals would hurt companies like ￰43￱ was ￰44￱ ￰45￱ one analyst put it, “Apple didn’t just dodge a bullet; they dodged a missile.” After that, Tim got back to the ￰46￱ after Labor Day, Apple hosted hundreds at its campus to show off the iPhone 17 ￰47￱ iPhone Air was the headline device, but customers didn’t love it; worse camera, single speaker, weaker battery, and high ￰48￱ didn’t ￰49￱ added just enough new stuff to the rest of the iPhones to keep people ￰50￱ Apple’s predicting up to 12% revenue growth this holiday quarter, which is double what Wall Street ￰51￱ critics call Apple slow on AI, the company still buys back $100 billion worth of its own stock each ￰52￱ thanks to subscriptions, App Store ads, and services like Apple News (which includes a deal with News Corp), Apple passed $100 billion in service revenue this ￰53￱ services make more profit than the ￰54￱ years ago, people laughed at ￰55￱ they’re ￰56￱ for the Apple ￰57￱ didn’t ￰58￱ just kept growing the business.

He’s not a “product guy” like Steve ￰59￱ doesn’t live in the design ￰60￱ under Tim, Apple now designs its own ￰61￱ say he should be replaced by someone more visionary when he eventually ￰62￱ day isn’t coming ￰63￱ he steps down, he’s expected to stay on as executive ￰64￱ smartest crypto minds already read our ￰65￱ in? Join them .