Tata Group gears up for new iPhone assembly plant as Apple expands India footprint

New Delhi: In a further boost to the ‘Make in India’ initiative, business conglomerate Tata Group is geared up for a new iPhone assembly plant in the country that is likely to become operational in the festive quarter of 2024.

The iPhone unit by Tata is being built in Hosur, Tamil Nadu. The iPhone facility is expected to employ over 50,000 workers, mostly women.

The 250-acre Hosur plant will manufacture iPhones using components from a unit that Tata set up a couple of years ago. Tata Electronics is reportedly investing Rs 6,000 crore in the new plant.

The Tata Group acquired Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Wistron's India operations for $125 million in October last year. The iPhone contract manufacturers in India now include Foxconn, Tata and Pegatron.

Reports first surfaced in December last year that the Tata Group is planning to build one of India's largest iPhone assembly plants in Tamil Nadu's Hosur. Tata already operates the iPhone manufacturing plant in Karnataka, which it has purchased from Wistron.

The shift in Apple manufacturing in the country happens as the tech giant aims to manufacture more than 50 million iPhones in India per year.

Meanwhile, Apple has begun to train thousands of workers at its factory in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu (operated by Foxconn) for launching latest iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max models in the country post the global debut this fall.

Apple is set to make its ‘Make in India’ iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max models available in the country right after the global launch.

iPhone 16 is set to be made available on the first day of global sales in India, just like last year when iPhone 15 arrived in the domestic market on the very first day of the global sale. It will be shortly followed by iPhone 16 Plus models.

Foxconn is a major Apple supplier globally and has invested 1.4 billion dollars in India to date, with more to come. The Taiwanese contract manufacturing giant’s business in India has surged to 10 billion dollars till last fiscal, according to its CEO and Chairman, Young Liu .

Apple’s India operations reached 23.5 billion dollars in value in the last fiscal (FY24).