Tata Group May Become First Indian Company to Make iPhones In India

Ratan Tata-led Tata Group is likely to become the first Indian company to assemble iPhones in India as the group is close to an agreement to acquire Apple’s supplier factory in Karnataka in August this year, sources were quoted as saying by Bloomberg.

Tata taking over Wistron Corp factory in the Southern Indian state potentially valued more than $600 million. The factory in Karnataka employs more than 10,000 employees who assemble the latest 14 models.

According to the Bloomberg report, Wistron has committed to ship iPhones worth $1.8 billion from the factory in the fiscal year through March 2024 to win state-backed financial incentives. It also had plans to triple the workforce at the factory by next year.

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The Tata Group will honor these commitments as Wistron will exit the iPhone business in India.

The takeover will also add momentum to Apple’s efforts to diversify its product base beyond China and build up technology manufacturing in the South Asian nation. The report further highlighted that Wistron had exported nearly $500 million worth iPhones from India in the last three months ended June 30.

An Indian company making iPhone in India could prove to be a significant boost to the country and could also challenge China’s status as ‘Factory of the World’. This move could also persuade other global electronic companies to consider production in India rather than China.

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The Tata Group, which sells everything from salt to tech services, already makes iPhone chassis, or the metal backbone of the device at its factory which is spread over hundreds of acres of land in Tamil Nadu state.