Trump's first onshoring win isn’t the iPhone – it's the AI server
As Nikkei Asia reports in a new investigation, the US is quietly assembling a domestic supply chain for one of the most complex machines in the world: the AI server. And while Apple has resisted political pressure to move iPhone production onshore, a host of data centre suppliers – including Foxconn, Wistron, TSMC and SK Hynix – are rapidly expanding their US footprint to serve customers like Nvidia, Microsoft and Amazon.
According to Nikkei, Foxconn is leading the charge in Houston, Texas, where the Taiwanese giant is building out capacity to locally produce GPU modules and boards – key components in Nvidia’s AI server systems. Today, more than 90% of these components are still made in Taiwan, but Foxconn aims to shift a significant share of production stateside. Wistron, Pegatron and other Nvidia partners are also planning new facilities, with at least six new projects clustered in Texas alone.
This flurry of investment marks a significant pivot in the US tech supply chain. GPU server systems, unlike iPhones, weigh quite a bit – around 1,800 kilograms, and are made up of 1.2 million chips, components, and up to 2 miles of copper cable; thus, it makes more sense to make data centres in the US than it does to produce, well, iPhones. That, coupled with growing geopolitical risk and President Trump’s aggressive tariff strategy, has pushed suppliers to act.
"Houston is our top priority, as right now GPU modules and board are mostly [made] in Taiwan," a senior executive at Foxconn told Nikkei Asia.
And let’s not forget TSMC’s USD 165 billion Arizona fab investment and SK Hynix’s move to bring high-bandwidth memory production to Indiana.
With American hyperscalers pouring billions into data centres, and Nvidia fuelling demand with its USD 500 billion infrastructure push, Nikkei suggests this may be Trump’s first real “Made in the USA” victory – its just not the iPhone win he was aiming for.
