Guo Mingchi: Apple would rather bear an extra 25% tariff than produce in the United States.

On May 23, Tianfeng International Securities analyst Guo Mingchi released a tweet on platform X, stating that even if Apple's iPhone sold in the US were subjected to a "targeted suppression" of 25% import tariffs, the financial burden would still be much lower than the cost of transferring assembly production lines to the US. Guo Mingchi pointed out that if production were moved to the US, Apple would need to invest billions of dollars in infrastructure, labor, and training, and there is no guarantee that they would achieve the same scale, cost, or speed as their current operations in Asia. Currently, the US plays a limited role in the assembly of iPhones, with most components being sourced from overseas and only the final assembly being completed abroad.