In a major expansion of its India manufacturing footprint, Foxconn is pushing forward with Apple’s “Made in India” strategy, investing Rs 21,000 crore in its massive iPhone assembly facility in Devanahalli, Karnataka. Apple appears unfazed, with CEO Tim Cook reiterating that the “majority of iPhones sold in the US will soon be marked ‘Made in India’.”
The sprawling 300-acre “Project Elephant” site near Bengaluru’s international airport is a cornerstone of Apple’s China+1 strategy. The Devanahalli campus will begin shipping iPhones as early as June 2025, with an ambitious target to assemble 100,000 units by December. Foxconn has already invested Rs 3,000 crore in Phase 1 (2023–24) and is set to invest a similar amount in Phase 2 (2026–27).
Dormitory-style housing for workers is central to the Foxconn model, and construction is in full swing to accommodate around 40,000 workers—India’s largest such facility. Preference is being given to women, who will comprise 50 to 80 per cent of the workforce. “Women travel from far and wide. The dorms will help them avoid that,” a male employee told ET. Work has reportedly begun in full swing on the iPhone 17 production line.
Apart from dorms, Foxconn has leased 900 homes from real estate firm BCD Group in Hoskote to accommodate 6,000 to 8,000 female employees. These units, built with Rs 500 crore in investment, are part of a self-contained township with commercial zones, schools, healthcare, and entertainment facilities, BCD Group MD Angad Singh Bedi told ET earlier.
Foxconn’s move represents a key pillar in Apple’s efforts to diversify away from its overdependence on China. The Taiwanese manufacturing giant also runs plants in Tamil Nadu and Telangana. A newly launched Hyderabad unit is dedicated to manufacturing AirPods, further broadening Apple’s India portfolio.
Meanwhile, Foxconn is already working closely with Tata Electronics, which has acquired Indian units of Wistron and Pegatron, both long-standing Apple vendors. Industry insiders told ET that Foxconn aims to produce 25 to 30 million iPhones in India in 2025—more than double the country’s output in the previous year.
In a report made earlier by Reuters, Apple had planned to manufacture the majority of iPhones sold in the United States at its Indian facilities by the end of 2026, as part of a strategic shift away from China due to rising geopolitical tensions and the risk of higher tariffs. The company had reportedly accelerated this transition and was engaged in urgent discussions with its key suppliers—Foxconn and Tata—to ramp up production capacity in India, according to a source familiar with the matter. At the time of the report, Apple sold over 60 million iPhones annually in the US, with around 80 per cent of them still produced in China. Apple and Foxconn had not issued official responses, while Tata had declined to comment.