Historically, the Taiwanese company Foxconn was the largest contract manufacturer of Apple products, but over the years the desire to diversify suppliers has even brought the Chinese BYD, which is better known for its batteries and electric vehicles, into their ranks. Meanwhile, about 100 thousand people are involved in the assembly of iPad at BYD enterprises.
Image Source: Apple
Revelations on this topic were recently published by The Wall Street Journal. According to analysts, BYD is now responsible for assembling more than 30% of Apple tablet devices. Servicing the orders of the American company provides jobs for 100,000 workers and 10,000 engineers, according to representatives of BYD itself. Combining such activities with the assembly of electric vehicles, according to the company’s management, requires high precision processes, and therefore does not seem so alien.
By the way, BYD is not the only Chinese contractor for Apple, on which the Cupertino company’s dependence is growing. Luxshare is gradually increasing its share in providing Apple with ready-made iPhones. This trend once again illustrates how difficult it is for Apple to refuse the services of Chinese companies. During his third visit to China in a year late last month, Apple CEO Tim Cook admitted: “We can’t do what we do without the help of Chinese companies.”
It is noteworthy that other electronics manufacturers also benefit from BYD’s breadth of competencies. This Chinese company helped Xiaomi assemble smartphones, but recently became involved in the assembly process of electric vehicles, which the latter began producing in March of this year. Huawei is also a BYD client in both electronics and electric vehicle technologies. Tim Cook praised BYD’s technological capabilities in assembling Apple electronics during his visit to China. The Chinese automaker also supplies Apple with titanium components for its iPhone.
The South Korean company Samsung and the Chinese BYD are supplying elements of a hinge mechanism for folding smartphones with a flexible display. In the third quarter, BYD’s revenue reached $28 billion, which allowed it to surpass Tesla in this indicator ($25 billion). The contract division of BYD Electronic earned $6 billion over the period. BYD and Apple have been cooperating since 2009, but the trust of the American customer in the Chinese contractor grew very slowly. The Chinese BYD has been producing iPads for Apple since approximately 2019.
As an example of its technological capabilities, BYD likes to demonstrate robots that can carve eggshells without destroying their integrity. The Chinese company has the capacity to assemble Apple electronics in Vietnam and, if necessary, can settle in India, where it already assembles smartphones for Xiaomi. BYD is going to use its collaboration with Nvidia to build factories where robots controlled by artificial intelligence will work.