The sale of an assembly factory near Bengaluru was approved by Wistron Corp, and the Tata Group is set to produce the first iPhone produced in India. Within 2.5 years, according to Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar, manufacture would begin. For almost a year, negotiations to take over the plant have been ongoing between the airline-to-software conglomerate and the Taiwanese iPhone producer.
“Tata Companies will now begin producing iPhones from India for both home and international markets in about 2.5 years. Kudos to the Tata team for assuming control of Wistron operations. I appreciate Wistron’s contributions, and I think it’s fantastic that Apple is using Indian companies to lead a global supply chain from India,” he tweeted.
The board has approved the $125 million sale of Wistron InfoComm Manufacturing (India) Private Ltd. to Tata, the company said in a statement on Friday. Following the confirmation of the arrangement by both sides, the companies will apply for regulatory clearances.
Previous reports, which cited unnamed sources, put the Tata-Wistron deal’s value at above $600 million.
As part of their agreement, Tata is also expected to honor a number of production and staffing obligations made by Wistron, according to a July report from Bloomberg. In order to qualify for state-backed financial incentives, this involves selling iPhones valued at least $1.8 billion from the factory in the fiscal year until March 2024. By the next year, Wistron also intended to increase the number of employees at the plant by thrice. Over 10,000 people are currently employed by the plant to assemble the newest iPhone 14 model.
Coincidentally, the announcement of the discoveries came just hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasized India’s technical advancements at the India Mobile Congress.
Google recently revealed that its Pixel phone will be produced in India. India is where Apple’s iPhone 15 and Samsung’s Fold 5 smartphone are made. At the ceremony, he had stated, “We are proud that mobile phones made in India are now being used all over the world.”