Texas Instruments' $60B U.S. project, the next iPhone chips fabric

Summary

When Texas Instruments announced a $60 billion manufacturing megaproject in July, it was a bold bet that companies would want to mass produce foundational microchips on U.S. soil. In August, Apple vowed to do just that.During the same Oval Office press conference where President Donald Trump announced a 100% tariff on chips from companies not manufacturing in the U.S., Apple CEO Tim Cook upped his companies' U.S. spending commitment to $600 billion over the next four years, up from an original $500 billion announcement in February.Part of that spending, Cook said, will go toward making "critical foundation semiconductors" for iPhones and other devices at Texas Instruments' new chip fabrication plants in Utah and Texas.In July, CNBC became the first news organization to see the inside of TI's newest fab in Sherman, Texas. There, full production is on schedule to start by the end of 2025. It's one of seven new factories the chipmaker is building in the U.S. to provide chips to major customers like Nvidia, Ford Motor, Medtronic and SpaceX.Although Texas Instruments doesn't make the world's most advanced chips, its essential components are found almost everywhere, from smartphones to the graphics processing units powering generative AI."If you have anything that plugs into the wall, or has a battery in it, or has a cord in it, you probably carry more than one TI chip in it," said Mohammad Yunus, TI's senior VP of technology and manufacturing.But just one month after TI announced the $60 billion project, its shares plummeted 13% following weak guidance and tariff concerns raised in its July 23 earnings call. "The worry is their end customers. Like in the wake of tariff uncertainty, they don't know what to expect. Are they stockpiling?" said Stacy Rasgon, senior analyst at Bernstein Research.It remains to be seen whether demand will remain high once tariff uncertainties calm. Still, shares did recover some ground in August."I would position them as more of a tariff winner...