Verdanta to build iPhone factory in India with Foxconn

The speed at which Apple’s manufacturing ecosystem in India is expanding appears to be accelerating. Most recently, we learned giant India conglomerate, Tata Group may work with Wistron to set up an iPhone factory, and this week we find out that another big company, Vedanta, is also in talks to set up iPhone manufacturing there.

Big investments, big production

Vedanta is also expected to “enter the electric vehicle space” the chair of the company, Anil Agarwal said during an interview. “India has enough demand for five to 10 such fabs, and we are going to mostly capture the local demand,” he said.

The company will work with Foxconn on its iPhone plans and will own 60% of the iPhone factory it intends to build in PM Narendra Modi’s home state, Gujarat. The factory will be operational by 2025, he said. It will be a $19.5 billion investment.

These moves and others across the Apple supply chain show that India is an emerging electronics manufacturing hub, replacing and supplementing existing supply chains in China. Industry insiders talk of the emergence of “India’s own Silicon Valley”. This reflects much investment on part of the Modi government which is offering a range of incentives to attract investors and manufacturers to India.

Apple’s focus on India was smart

Apple’s Tim Cook has led a huge push to build Apple’s business in India. The company has invested years of effort to build its business in the nation, and this now extends to manufacturing some devices there.  It also offers retail stores, an online store and has one of its main Apple Maps development bases there.

The nation itself is a growing economy that recently overtook the flailing and failing UK. This is driving an increasingly vibrant consumer market. Apple broke iPhone, iPad and Mac sales records in India in 2021.

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