Apple is opening a new manufacturing facility in Houston, Texas, and will produce Mac mini desktop computers there from later this year.

On Aug. 13, local time, CNBC and other foreign media reported that AI servers for Apple are already being assembled in part of the facility. Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook and U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick attended the opening event. U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, Houston Mayor John Whitmire, U.S. Representative Christian Menefee and Harris County Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis also attended, along with other political and government figures.

The newly opened Advanced Manufacturing Center (AMC) covers about 1,858 square metres, or 20,000 square feet. Apple plans to operate it not simply as a production base but as a manufacturing center that offers free education and training courses for companies. In the first course on the day, businesspeople learned smart manufacturing techniques, including how to use machine learning in quality control.

Cook said at the event that Apple has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the facility. "We built the factory, started production and shipped our first advanced AI servers," he said. "We will also start producing Mac mini later this year," he added. Apple has recently been more actively highlighting products it manufactures directly in the United States and its supply chain investments.

The announcement is tied to Apple's U.S. manufacturing strategy. U.S. President Donald Trump has for years pressured Apple to produce iPhones in the United States. Apple has not announced any plan to make iPhones in the United States. Instead, it has emphasized areas it sources or produces in the country, including parts, chips and cover glass. Cook said the previous day that Apple sourced more than 20 billion chips in the United States last year and also received 100 million chips produced at a TSMC facility in Arizona.

Lutnick said at a ribbon-cutting ceremony, "The United States has long been the great inventor of the world's technology, but we had to watch that technology be produced in other countries." "President Trump said that has to change," he said. He also said Apple needed "a commitment to produce in the United States," and rated it as a company that can lead the return of advanced manufacturing to the United States.

The Houston plant is also linked to Apple's existing promotion of U.S. manufacturing. Apple announced a $600 billion, or about 850 trillion won, "American Manufacturing Program" last August and said it would support U.S. manufacturing by expanding capacity through order and purchase agreements with semiconductor companies. It also opened a manufacturing center in Michigan that provides education and training. Apple executives have announced U.S. production of Mac Pro and servers alongside Trump administration officials, but the significance of this announcement differs because Mac mini is a consumer product with far higher sales volume. In 2019, Cook visited an Austin, Texas, plant with Trump to see a $6,000 Mac Pro being assembled. Last year, he also said at a White House event that Apple Intelligence servers would be produced near Houston.

The event also coincides with a management succession phase. Cook will move to the role of Apple's executive chairman from Sept. 1, and longtime hardware executive John Ternus will become CEO. Apple explained that Cook will continue to support some company work, including cooperation with policymakers worldwide. The joint appearance with government officials is read as an early sign of this role change.

From a product perspective, Mac mini stands out in particular. It is not Apple's flagship PC, but demand rose enough for it to sell out at some stores this spring as OpenClaw, a free program, spread among AI users. That was influenced by an assessment that Mac mini, a small desktop, is suitable for running AI agents. Lutnick also said, "I thought Mac mini was just a desktop computer, but Tim Cook said 'no,'" and reported that Cook explained that advanced AI models can also run on the computer.

Apple has also diversified its supply chain to reduce its dependence on China. Some iPhones and Macs bound for the United States are produced in India and Vietnam. In this situation, the Houston manufacturing facility is expected to be used as a base that shows Apple's expansion of U.S. production along with advanced server assembly and consumer device production.