Investment bank Morgan Stanley has told investors that while Apple may have brought forward some iPhone 16 production ahead of Trump’s new tariffs, there is little more it can do to mitigate a $33 billion cost increase it is about to incur.
Investment bank Morgan Stanley has told investors that while Apple may have brought forward some iPhone 16 production ahead of Trump’s new tariffs, there is little more it can do to mitigate a $33 billion cost increase it is about to incur.
President Trump did not expect China to retaliate against his tariffs, and Morgan Stanley says its analysts didn’t even contemplate tariffs being this high. But reportedly, Apple did at least expect that it would fail to get exemptions this time around.
According to a Morgan Stanley note to investors seen by AppleInsider, the company’s analysts claim to know that «Apple has pulled forward some iPhone builds.» There are no further details, but depending on the quantity of iPhones already completed and imported into the US, Apple could hold off price increases for a time.
The iPhones that have already been built will have to come from the iPhone 16 range. The iPhone 17 isn’t far enough along in development to have anything stateside yet.
And, Apple generally uses «just in time» production, and doesn’t hold vast quantities of stock. It is this trait of CEO Tim Cook, in part, that helped him land the job.
Apple’s US manufacturing will not help
Morgan Stanley notes that Apple has announced a $500 billion investment in US manufacturing, but as AppleInsider has previously noted, the investment claim was a political re-phrasing of Apple’s existing plans.
