18 Major Companies Tied to the Apple Supply Chain
Julie Young
A look at some of Apple's top suppliers gives an understanding of how this growing company functions. By looking at the Apple supply-chain model, along with the benefits and challenges for each component, you can gain an understanding of large-scale, multinational production streams.
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Apple (AAPL) is one of the most valuable companies in the U.S., with a market cap of over $3.05 trillion as of July 2023. A big part of its success has come from its ability to be a true innovator in personal technology. Millions of customers are willing to pay top dollar for the quality, design, and features of Apple devices, making products like the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch top sellers.

To achieve this greatness, though, Apple doesn't depend on its own manufacturing alone. It has hundreds of suppliers it relies on for procuring components for assembly.

Apple puts a great deal of effort into monitoring its suppliers. These relationships help to make the tech giant a manager of one of the most efficient supply-chain management systems on the market. Each year it releases a progress report outlining its supplier relationship efforts as well as a list of its top 200 suppliers, which account for 98% of its procurement. Below are 18 of the most prominent.

Taiwan-Based

Taiwan is one of the top areas of Apple's suppliers, although many Taiwanese suppliers have major locations in China and other countries.

Hon Hai Precision Industry (Foxconn)

Hon Hai Precision Industry, which trades as Foxconn internationally, is one of the major reasons that Taiwan is on the map for Apple. Foxconn is one of Apple’s oldest and largest suppliers. The company has its headquarters in Tucheng, New Taipei City.

Although based in Taiwan, Foxconn is often thought of as Apple’s largest China supplier because of its vast number of Chinese supplier locations. Foxconn also helped Apple branch out to India with one location there, as well as manufacturing in the United States and Vietnam.

Compal

Compal Electronics Incorporated is one of Apple's manufacturers of the iPad and the Apple Watch, with locations in mainland China, Vietnam, and Thailand. Its headquarters is in Taipei City, Taiwan.

Quanta Computer

This notebook computer manufacturer conducts research and development in Taiwan, with manufacturing in that country as well as U.S., Europe, and Asia. Quanta is one of Apple's Macbook manufacturers.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company

Known as TSMC, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company produces chips for Apple's iPads, iPhones, Watches, and Macs. Its Apple production facilities are located in Shanghai, Taiwan, and Washington state.

Wistron

Wistron is another Taiwan-based company that’s also helping Apple expand into India. Wistron has two supplier locations: China and India. A focus for Wistron in India has been printed circuit boards for iPhones.

Pegatron

Pegatron is another company rounding out the Taiwan lineup. It has its headquarters in Taiwan, with supplier sites in China and India. Pegatron is similar to Foxconn in that it provides iPhone assembly.

China-Based

In general, China is a very important global region for Apple. The 2022 suppliers list shows Chinese and Hong Kong-based suppliers growing to account for a larger share than America and Japan. By physical location, China accounts for 156 of the total 615 production facilities. However, Apple has shared some concern over its dependence on China, given the 2020 coronavirus outbreak as well as tariff rule changes under the Trump administration.

GoerTek

GoerTek and Luxshare are two Chinese companies that have been in the Apple supplier spotlight. Both companies agreed to set up productions in Vietnam to improve the manufacturing cost efficiency of the Airpod. Goertek has two supplier locations in China and one in Vietnam. The company has its headquarters in Weifang, China.

Luxshare

Luxshare is also in partnership with Apple for the production of the Airpods. It has six supplier locations in China and one in Vietnam.

U.S.-Based

Despite its reliance on an international supply chain, Apple is also still very dependent on many companies in the U.S., including 3M (MMM), Broadcom (AVGO), Qualcomm (QCOM), Intel (INTC), Jabil (JBL), On (ON), Micron (MU), and Texas Instruments (TXN). Other U.S. companies also include Qorvo (QRVO), Skyworks (SWKS), and Corning (GLW).

Broadcom

Broadcom helps Apple produce chips and components for wireless charging. Headquartered in San Jose, Calif., Broadcom maintains supplier locations in Singapore, Taiwan, Colorado, and Pennsylvania.

Corning

Corning is the glassmaker behind Apple's Gorilla Glass, a tough and scratchproof glass used in drop-resistant device screens. Corning's headquarters is in Corning, N.Y.

Micron

Semiconductor manufacturer Micron produces some of Apple's memory chips. The American-based firm is headquartered in Boise, Idaho, with supplier locations in China, Japan, Singapore, and Taiwan.

Qualcomm

NASDAQ-listed Qualcomm is a world leader in semiconductor, mobile, and telecom products and services. It is known to supply multiple electronic components to Apple, including envelope power trackers, baseband processors, power management modules, and GSM/CDMA receivers and transceivers. These are various instruments used in device power management systems and in mobile signaling. Qualcomm has also come through for Apple devices, offering necessary modem technology.

Modem technology is however at the core of the Apple, Intel, and Qualcomm 504 disputes. Apple announced it was buying Intel’s smartphone modem business. This led to a lawsuit by Qualcomm which resulted in maintaining the modem manufacturing relationship for Qualcomm even after the Intel acquisition.

Intel

In July 2019, Apple announced its agreement with Intel to acquire the majority of its smartphone modem business. With the acquisition, Apple broadened its patent ownership and set up a strong plan for 5G development. Moreover, after the acquisition, the Mac used Intel processors, but in late 2020 began transitioning to Apple silicon in Mac computers. On the 2022 supplier list, Intel reports supplier locations in the U.S., Ireland, Vietnam, and Malaysia.

Japan-Based

Murata Manufacturing Ltd.

Murata (MRAAY) is based in Kyoto, Japan. It supplies Apple from 18 manufacturing facilities spread across Malaysia, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, China, and Singapore. It has 10 supplier sites in Japan.

Apple and Samsung are Murata’s top two clients, procuring ceramic capacitors from the company. These electronic parts are used to control the flow of electricity in electronic devices.

Sharp

LCD panels producer Sharp, based in Sakai, Osaka, Japan, is a partially-owned subsidiary of Foxconn. Sharp's supplier locations are in China, Vietnam, and Japan.

Sony

Sony produces camera and electronic components for Apple, with six supplier locations in Japan and one in Thailand. Sony's headquarters is in Tokyo.

South Korea-Based

Samsung

Samsung has its headquarters in South Korea. It supplies multiple components, including flash memory used for storing data content, the mobile DRAM used for multi-tasking various applications in devices, and the application processors responsible for controlling and keeping devices running.

Despite being a competitor to Apple in the mobile phone market, Samsung uses its supplier status to reduce its own component manufacturing costs via bulk production.

LG

Apple added LG Innotek as an additional supplier of its displays, beyond what it sources from Samsung. LG Innotek operates supplier locations in South Korea, where it is based, as well as Vietnam.

Apple's Relationships with Suppliers

Apple is known to maintain one of the best-managed supply chains in the world. Using its stature and global reach, the tech giant is able to demand high-quality products and impose stricter terms on its suppliers.

Apple has hundreds of such suppliers willing to abide by the terms Apple sets forth. What's more, by outsourcing its supply chain and assembly operations, Apple can do what it does best—concentrate on designing great products that offer rich functionality and are easy to use.

On the flip side, being associated with a brand like Apple can be a remarkable boon for a supplier firm. Apart from the small novice firms, who may derive much of their business from Apple, even larger companies like Samsung use the relationship to their advantage. As noted, Samsung continues to compete with Apple in the mobile phone market; however, large orders from Apple allow Samsung to increase bulk production, which reduces manufacturing costs for its own mobile phone components.

Another advantage for suppliers is that Apple has a reputation for innovation. Regardless of how specific products have performed and despite missteps that have occurred, people expect Apple to come out with something new on a regular basis and eagerly anticipate these products. To a certain extent, this shields Apple suppliers, who will continue to see new demands for their goods and services.

It should be noted, however, that failing to please Apple can spell doomsday for a small or medium-sized supplier that has built its business around Apple product sales. If suppliers do not maintain high-quality goods at the right price, Apple has the positioning to replace them with another competitor.

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