India’s iPhone exports to the U.S. soared an estimated 76%. But Trump, Beijing won’t make further growth easy
A man seen using his phone next to iPhone 16 models kept on display at the Apple store in Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) in Mumbai.
Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images
Shipments of iPhones from India to the U.S. rose 76% in April year on year, estimates from a technology market analyst firm shows. The surge comes as Apple accelerates its “made in India” plans, which analysts say will meet pushback from President Donald Trump and Beijing.
The data from Canalys, now part of Omdia, showed that U.S. iPhones shipped from India in April reached roughly 3,000,000. That’s a stark contrast to shipments from China over the same period, which fell about 76% from last year to just 900,000.
According to Le Xuan Chiew, a research manager at Omdia, the April numbers show the aggressive measures Apple has taken to adapt to Washington’s tariffs against China, where Apple manufactures most of its iPhones.
“This latest trade war with China, is the type of disturbance that Apple has long been trying to prepare itself for,” he said, adding that the country had first started investing heavily into supply chains in India during the Covid-19 pandemic.
India also surpassed China in iPhone shipments to the United States in March, according to Omdia’s estimates. The uptick came ahead of Trump’s first iteration of “reciprocal tariffs” on April 2. The amount of shipments that month was unusually high and appeared to be the result of the company’s stockpiling, according to Chiew.
The Trump administration’s decision to exempt iPhones and other consumer electronics from his reciprocal tariffs on April 11 did not reverse those trends, with Apple CEO Tim Cook in early may reiterating plans for most iPhone’s sold in the U.S. to be manufactured in India.
IPhones imported from China under Trump’s current term tariffs still face an additional 30% of duties, while the baseline tariff rate is currently 10% for most other countries, including India.
Growth to plateau?
While the jump in India’s iPhone shipments in March and April showed the adaptability of Apple’s supply chains, that growth is expected to slow down for the rest of the year, according to Omdia’s Chiew.
“India’s manufacturing capacity isn’t expected to grow fast enough to take the entirety of U.S. demand. It’s still too early,” he said, noting that the company recently began shipments of Apple’s most cutting-edge iPhone 16 Pro.
Omdia estimates that U.S. iPhone demand is about 20 million a quarter, with India expected to be able to match that level only by 2026.
Meanwhile, Daniel Newman, CEO and principal analyst at research firm Futurum Group, noted that shipment numbers reflect final assembly, but are not representative of the entire supply chain and manufacturing process.
“It was actually a very low lift for them to migrate more and more of the final assembly from China to India,” he said, adding that a vast majority of the sub-assemblies are all still in China.
Pushback from Washington and Beijing
Analysts said India’s ability to expand its iPhone capacity could be curbed by protectionist measures from Washington and Beijing, which both have issues with Apple’s reaction against tariffs.
According to Newman, while this is the smart thing for Apple to do, it’s also playing a “dangerous game” with Trump, as it doesn’t meet the objectives of his administration’s tariffs.
On Friday, Trump threatened to slap a 25% tariff on all iPhone shipments in a social media post, reiterating that he expects iPhones sold in the U.S. to be manufactured and built domestically, “not India, or anyplace else.”
China, for its part, is not expected to make it easy for Apple to diversify out of the country, Newman said, adding that the company has served as trade leverage for Beijing.
According to reports from local outlets in India, Beijing has tried to make it harder for the country to access the high-tech machinery and talent from China needed to further support Apple’s suppliers in India.
Dan Ives, global head of technology research at Wedbush Securities, told CNBC that Apple’s India plans will pose some challenges regarding logistics, distribution and navigating complex supply chains in the country. However, India is nevertheless expected to remain a “life raft” for Apple under the tariff situation.
“Producing iPhones in the U.S. is a fairy tale in our view and Apple will continue to plow ahead on the India path. Cook will look to negotiate with Trump but India is the focus and not changing.”
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg appears at the Meta Connect event in Menlo Park, California, on Sept. 25, 2024.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Meta’s AI assistant now has 1 billion monthly active users across the company’s family of apps, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Wednesday at the company’s annual shareholder meeting.
The “focus for this year is deepening the experience and making Meta AI the leading personal AI with an emphasis on personalization, voice conversations and entertainment,” Zuckerberg said.
The artificial intelligent assistant’s 1 billion milestone comes after the company in April released a standalone app for the tool.
The plan is for Meta to keep growing the product before building a business around it, Zuckerberg said on Wednesday. As Meta AI improves overtime, Zuckerberg said “there will be opportunities to either insert paid recommendations” or offer “a subscription service so that people can pay to use more compute.”
In February, CNBC reported that Meta was planning to debut a standalone Meta AI app during the second quarter and test a paid-subscription service akin to rival chat apps like OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
“It may seem kind of funny that a billion monthly actives doesn’t seem like it’s at scale for us, but that’s where we’re at,” Zuckerberg told shareholders.
During the Meta shareholder meeting, investors voted on 14 different items related to the company’s business, nine of which were shareholder proposals covering topics such as child safety, greenhouse gas emissions and a proposed bitcoin treasury assessment.
Shareholder proposal 8, for example, was submitted by JLens, which is an investment advisor and affiliate of the Anti-Defamation League, and called for Meta to prepare an annual report detailing and addressing hate content, including antisemitism, on its services following January policy changes that relaxed content-moderation guidelines.
Early voting results on Wednesday showed the proposals that Meta’s board did not recommend were unlikely to pass, including one calling for the company to end its dual-class share structure, which gives Zuckerberg significant voting power. Meanwhile, the voting items that the board favored, including those pertaining to approving the company’s board of director nominees and an equity incentive plan, were likely to pass, based on the preliminary results.
Meta said final polling results will be released within four business days on the company’s website and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff participates in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 22, 2025.
Chris Ratcliffe | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Salesforce shares were volatile in extended trading on Wednesday after the sales and customer service software maker reported upbeat fiscal first-quarter results and guidance.
Here’s how the company performed relative to LSEG consensus:
- Earnings per share: $2.58 adjusted vs. 2.54 expected
- Revenue: $9.83 billion vs. $9.75 billion expected
Salesforce’s revenue grew 7.6% year over year in the quarter, which ended on April 30, according to a statement. Net income of $1.54 billion, or $1.59 per share, was basically flat compared with $1.53 billion, or $1.56 per share, a year ago.
President Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs on goods imported into the U.S. in early April. Co-founder and CEO Marc Benioff sounded positive about the company’s results for the quarter anyway, pointing to its plan, announced on Tuesday, to buy data management company Informatica for $8 billion.
It would be Salesforce’s priciest acquisition since the $27.1 billion Slack deal in 2021. Slack marked the top end of the buyouts Salesforce had made under Benioff. Activist investors raised concerns about all the spending, in addition to slowing revenue growth.
Salesforce sprung into action, slashing 10% of its headcount. Benioff proclaimed that the board’s mergers and acquisitions committee had been disbanded. The company’s finance chief at the time said it would reach a margin expansion goal two years early. And Salesforce started paying dividends to shareholders.
Initial reception to the Informatica announcement was generally favorable. “Salesforce is paying a reasonable multiple for the asset, in our view, and the deal should be more easily digested by investors than some of the company’s large deals in the past (i.e. Slack),” Stifel analysts led by J. Parker Lane wrote in a note to clients. The investment bank has a buy rating on Salesforce shares.
During the fiscal first quarter, Salesforce introduced the AgentExchange marketplace for artificial intelligence agents.
Management sees $2.76 to $2.78 in adjusted earnings per share on $10.11 billion to $10.16 billion in revenue for the fiscal second quarter. Analysts polled by LSEG had expected $2.73 in adjusted earnings per share on $10.01 billion in revenue.
Salesforce bumped up its full-year forecast. It called for $11.27 to $11.33 in adjusted earnings per share and $41.0 billion to $41.3 billion in revenue, implying revenue growth between 8% and 9%. The LSEG consensus included net income of $11.16 per share and $40.82 billion in revenue. The guidance in February was $11.09 to $11.17 in adjusted earnings per share, with $40.5 billion to $40.9 billion in revenue.
As of Wednesday’s close, the stock had slipped about 18% so far in 2025, while the S&P index was unchanged.
Executives will discuss the results with analysts on a conference call starting at 5 p.m. ET.
This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.
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