Apple Inc. has achieved a major manufacturing milestone in India, with its local vendors exporting iPhones worth a record $50 billion cumulatively through December 2025. This significant figure was reached well ahead of the completion of the company’s five-year eligibility period under the government’s Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for smartphones, which Apple joined in the financial year 2022–23.

The rapid ramp-up underscores India’s emergence as a critical global production hub for the American technology giant, second only to China. Industry officials and government sources have described the achievement as a landmark success for the Make in India initiative, highlighting the country’s growing capability to produce high-value electronics at scale for both domestic consumption and international markets.

In the first nine months of the current financial year (April to December 2025), Apple’s India-based operations exported nearly $16 billion worth of iPhones, pushing the total past the $50 billion threshold. Exports are expected to continue rising in the remaining months, as the company operates through five major iPhone assembly facilities in the country—three managed by Tata Electronics and two by Foxconn. These plants are supported by an expanding ecosystem of approximately 45 component suppliers, many of them micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), which produce parts not only for local sales but also for global Apple supply chains, including exports back to China and Vietnam.

The milestone also reflects the broader transformation of India’s electronics sector. Smartphones have become the nation’s largest export category by value in recent years, with iPhones accounting for roughly 75 percent of total smartphone exports. Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has noted that electronics production in India has grown sixfold and exports eightfold over the past 11 years, with Apple-linked vendors contributing more than 60 percent of investments and employment in the sector. The localization of manufacturing has reached such a level that over 99 percent of iPhones sold within India are now made domestically.

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For comparison, rival Samsung exported mobile devices worth nearly $17 billion over its full five-year PLI period (FY21 to FY25), illustrating the significantly faster and larger scale of Apple’s expansion in the country. As the current PLI scheme approaches its conclusion in March 2026, the government is already preparing successor incentive programs to sustain this momentum and attract further high-value manufacturing investments. The $50 billion export milestone marks a proud moment for India’s evolving role in the global technology supply chain.

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