Apple Is Building a New Component Manufacturing Plant in Arizona

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple is set to build a new component manufacturing plant in Arizona. The deal is as a result of an agreement with GT Advanced Technologies, they will also be providing sapphire material for use in Apple products, according to the report.

“GT said it entered into a multiyear supply agreement at an Apple-owned facility in Mesa, Ariz. GT said Apple would provide the company with a prepayment of approximately $578 million that GT will reimburse to Apple over five years, starting in 2015,” the report said.

“Sapphire, a material known for its hardness, is used for a variety of purposes in electronics, including the manufacture of LEDs, or light-emitting diodes,” Daisuke Wakabayashi reports for WSJ. “Currently, Apple is using sapphire crystal for the fingerprint sensors in its latest iPhone 5S. The company and other smartphone makers are also using sapphire for purposes such as covers for camera lenses.”

“We are proud to expand our domestic manufacturing initiative with a new facility in Arizona, creating more than 2,000 jobs in engineering, manufacturing and construction,” an Apple spokeswoman said in a statement.

Earlier this year, Apple announced is their new high-end Mac Pro desktop computer will be assembled in Texas. As a result, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook has kept his promise that the company is working hard to bring more manufacturing to the US.

“We’ve been working for years on doing more and more in the United States,” Cook told Brian Williams in an interview with Rock Centre last year.

By Staff

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.