
Apple’s New Mac Pro to Be Made in Texas - infodocket
https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/09/apples-new-mac-pro-to-be-made-in-texas/
======
bengotow
This line caught my attention:

"The US manufacturing of Mac Pro is made possible following a federal product
exclusion Apple is receiving for certain necessary components."

Is this sort of a "if you don't make us pay tarrifs on component X, we'll
build component Y in the USA?"

Also I'm happy to see Apple doing this. Even if it's 50% press fluff, I think
it'll make other companies in the industry think harder about their own
practices because Apple commands such a great reputation.

~~~
zelon88
There's a downside too.

Royalty doesn't cook their own meals. Their time is more valuable than that.

Likewise, America doesn't make it's own underwear. We have China to do that.
Similarly, they have us to make safe airplanes and complex satellite
equipment.

Closing trade to the extent that we're making our own underwear INSTEAD of
satellite parts can't really be chocked up as a win. It just promotes the
notion that China should build their own satellite parts and we should make
our own underwear.

If making underwear isn't enough to feed a Chinese family, why would we with
that destiny upon American families?

Tl;Dr, America makes complex, high quality machines and equipment. Refined oil
products. Things that require quality over quantity. Things that you can't
substitute a generic for. Those are our bread and butter exports. Cheap crap
that gets thrown away, like Apple computers, are China's bread and butter. We
can either accept these facts and balance markets accordingly (and stay on top
at the same time) or we can compartmentalize the world and all be stuck
spinning our wheels and duplicating lots of effort, cold-war style, but with
stupid-crap like personal computers instead of nuclear weapons and spaceships.

~~~
tylerjwilk00
Manufacturing is a ladder. You use the previous generation manufacturing to
create the new. Once you lack certain manufacturing processes by moving it
over seas you are in a sense kicking your own ladder out from underneath you.
The trade wars now are a response to realizing large pieces of the ladder are
gone.

~~~
criddell
I remember a few years ago reading how Dell had lost the ability to make their
own computers gradually over time. On the face of it, every bit of
manufacturing and design they moved out of the US made sense, but all of it
added up over time meant that they had effectively lost control of the
computers they were selling.

It was an interesting story that but my google-fu isn't strong enough to find
it.

~~~
notfromhere
At some point, your manufacturing partners in China are going to realize they
control the means of production and can capture the added value by developing
their own front office to market and sell the goods they already manufacture.

At what point do places like Dell become just licensing operations?

~~~
cptskippy
I thought Dell has always been reliant on ODMs. Were they at any point
manufacturing components themselves?

Dell was still building PCs from off-the-shelf parts in the 90s so much of
what they have was developed in the last 20 years. I've got to imagine they
still have people in house who know how to setup manufacturing.

~~~
notfromhere
Even most of the assembly is overseas now. Eventually Asian companies are
going to just market their own brands instead of letting Dell be a supply
chain manager and marketer.

~~~
cptskippy
I wouldn't underestimate the value of supply chain management.

~~~
criddell
Dell did.

------
danpalmer
I'm interested as to whether this has a quality impact, or if it is purely a
marketing gimmick and tax thing.

I closely with the fashion industry in the UK, and one of the things that
surprised me a lot was finding out that "Made in the UK", at least for
clothing, meant lower quality. While we used to have great manufacturing
expertise, that has all been lost over the last 50+ years as manufacturing was
shifted overseas.

Now not only is getting clothing manufactured elsewhere cheaper, it's also
better quality, going against what consumers typically expect, because we lost
the skills that we had.

I'd imagine that the US has similarly lost manufacturing skills as operations
have been outsourced. Does US-based manufacturing (of computers in this case)
actually result in higher quality products? Is there any evidence of this? Or
is it all just PR and looking good for politicians?

~~~
magduf
It's not just skills, it's the supply chain surrounding the manufacturing.
There's several articles you can find with a quick Google search about how
Apple had so much trouble finding a source for small screws for the Mac in the
USA, whereas in China it was trivial to find a supplier that could provide the
massive quantities needed. So building the thing in the USA will probably end
up costing a lot more, not just because of US labor rates at the final
assembly factory (which probably isn't that much of a factor really), but
because all the logistics leading up to that point in the manufacture are now
so much less efficient.

~~~
linuxftw
Yeah, it's almost like trade deals completely decimated domestic manufacturing
the last 3 decades and it's impossible to build things here because everything
already moved overseas. All the 'little screw' suppliers went overseas or went
out of business because their customers went overseas.

~~~
genericone
Apple announcing they will continue to build mac pros in the USA is their
signal to suppliers that they should follow them back to the USA. If the
incentive to small-parts suppliers is good and the reverberating feedback are
strong enough (small-suppliers bringing large suppliers, large suppliers
bringing more small suppliers, rinse repeat), it'll lead other manufacturers
to come back. If automation is going to take over labor, then location and
labor-wages will matter less than supply-chain and the regulatory environment.
If USA can get back the supply-chain, the USA rule-of-law environment, is
probably preferable to China's rule-by-law environment.

~~~
linuxftw
I don't disagree. My comment was related to the notion of 'oh you can't just
build things here' premise that I responded to.

------
sschueller
"The latest generation Mac Pro will be manufactured in the same facility in
Austin, Texas where Mac Pro has been made since 2013."

So, no change.

~~~
zosterops
With the previous Mac Pro they made a big deal right away from the fact that
it was being made in Texas. Since they didn't do that this time around many
people were wondering if they shifted production over seas. This is Apple
quelling those rumors. Also:

> The value of American-made components in the new Mac Pro is 2.5 times
> greater than in Apple’s previous generation Mac Pro.

~~~
akhilcacharya
Isn’t the MSRP also 2x of the precious gen Mac Pro? ($6k vs $3k)

~~~
waterhouse
Good point. I'd like to see one of the absolute numbers in addition to the
ratio; otherwise the cynical interpretation (which is kind of the appropriate
interpretation for PR speak) is, "So the American-made portion used to be 1%
of the cost and it's now 2.5%, eh?" (Or 1.25% if the MSRP has a constant ratio
to the parts cost.)

------
miles
Based on the price, I figured it was going to be made in outer space:

"When you look at how much the components inside the base Mac Pro actually
cost, you'll be shocked at Apple's profit margin. But when you understand why
Apple is charging you so much cash, you'll just be angry." [0]

"The top-end Mac Pro could cost $45,000" [1]

[0] [https://www.zdnet.com/article/deconstructing-the-base-mac-
pr...](https://www.zdnet.com/article/deconstructing-the-base-mac-pro-why-is-
it-so-expensive/)

[1] [https://www.techradar.com/news/the-top-end-mac-pro-could-
cos...](https://www.techradar.com/news/the-top-end-mac-pro-could-cost-
dollar45000)

~~~
Analemma_
Out of all the product's in Apple's lineup, the Mac Pro is probably the one
with the _smallest_ price differential relative to competitors' products. Go
ahead and spec out a similar workstation from Dell or HP: you won't see much
difference in price.

Base price doesn't really matter to the buyers of these machines anyway,
they're not consumer products. These are being used by professionals who
generate revenue way in excess of what the computer costs, and stuff like
enterprise support contracts (where you can have a replacement machine at your
desk ASAP if yours dies, because otherwise you're losing money by the second)
matters much more to them.

The articles you linked are just dumb clickbait using the logic of consumer
product pricing where it isn't applicable.

~~~
michaelt
_> Go ahead and spec out a similar workstation from Dell or HP: you won't see
much difference in price._

Apple: Xeon W, 8 cores, 3.5GHz, 32GB RAM, 256GB SSD, $5,999 [1]

Dell: Xeon W, 8 cores, 3.7GHz, 32GB RAM, 256GB SSD, $3,466 [2]

[1] [https://www.tomsguide.com/us/mac-pro-2019-specs-
price,news-3...](https://www.tomsguide.com/us/mac-pro-2019-specs-
price,news-30241.html) [2] [https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/workstations-
isv-certif...](https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/workstations-isv-
certified-
dell/precision-5820-tower/spd/precision-5820-workstation/xctopt5820us_4)

~~~
dubcanada
Not to be pedantic but the Dell machine is on sale, and Apple isn't.

It's list price is $4,420.29 which is still about $1500 off. But that comes
with Windows that supports 4 cores so you would need to upgrade to the 4+
cores one thats another $100 so more like $1400.

So basically $1400 is the difference between a top tier Dell and a top tier
Apple. Still a fairly large margin, but after a certain number the amount
matters less. People who are buying $4500 computers typically don't care about
spending another $1000.

~~~
sjburt
Dells are always on "sale". It's part of some game involving enterprise sales
and negotiated discounts off list price.

~~~
madeofpalk
Likewise for Apple (though I guess Dell's discounts are more substantial _

~~~
penagwin
Wait what? Apple rarely if ever has "sales" on their products, I've seen
student discounts and itunes gift cards, but that's about it.

At Dell/HP/Lenovo meanwhile half their products are "on sale" the same way
that furniture stores have "sales" \- its "sale" price is basically it's real
price.

~~~
madeofpalk
They don't have sales, but they definitely have 'sales team pricing' .

------
aloknnikhil
> The value of American-made components in the new Mac Pro is 2.5 times
> greater than in Apple’s previous generation Mac Pro.

Yes, the Mac Pro has been manufactured since 2013 in Texas. However, this PR
is more indicative of a strong trend and that's a good thing.

~~~
funkyy
Do you have source?

~~~
aloknnikhil
It's in the PR linked here.

------
malchow
They received a few minor tariff exemptions, but not enough to matter. The
warp and woof of this move is fundamentally moral, not economic. The dream of
perfect international comparative advantage is not likely to be achieved when
one country is run like a trillion-dollar mafia. Hence, a moral push to
assemble in the U.S. I think this will make sense to a ton of consumers around
the world.

On a personal note, I was not going to buy one, but now I’ll buy two.

~~~
magduf
>when one country is run like a trillion-dollar mafia.

Which country are you talking about, China or the US?

------
minimaxir
To those posting "this is not newsworthy since it's been unchanged since
2013", you must consider the radically different economic context, namely the
threat of tarrifs (which was not as much of an issue in 2013).

------
PeterStuer
Apple's statements on the reason for non-US based manufacturing has been that
it is not the labor cost but the (lack of domestic) skills that drive them
abroad.

The Mac Pro, a low volume flagship product, was long the only US manufactured
product, until Apple announced it was moving offshore a well.

Apple gets tariff exemptions on the import of the parts for the machines, so
it can do the assembly in Austin.

Meanwhile Apple is shifting a very significant volume of manufacturing away
from China to ... India.

Both Apple and the Administration get to send out 'feel good' PR.

------
nottorp
I'm sure everyone outside the US is now thinking "why couldn't they make it in
China and sell it for 20% less?" :)

------
eljimmy
> will begin production soon at the same Austin facility where Mac Pro has
> been made since 2013.

Doesn't seem very newsworthy.

~~~
richardknop
They were supposed to move it to China and shut down the facility in Texas.
But they reversed after I assume tariff threat from White House? Not sure but
that's what I'd imagine.

------
elif
What is that, 0.01% of their production? I'm a Mac Pro 2013 user, still
haven't met another.

This headline is equivalent to "Toyota manufacturing floor mats in the US"
only it is made to sound sexy because it is apple and people mentally conflate
Mac Pro with MacBook Pro.

------
bigwavedave
I just want them to get rid of the smart bar and bring back my physical keys,
I couldn't care less about anything else.

------
rrggrr
[https://www.engadget.com/2019/09/21/apple-mac-pro-us-
tariff-...](https://www.engadget.com/2019/09/21/apple-mac-pro-us-tariff-
exemptions)

------
diebir
I recently bought a domestic vehicle. What a mistake. The assembly quality is
awful. I don't know how they assemble the body panels I thought it was all
done by robots, but robots would not miss spot welds or misalign parts and
retry welds after a miss. I think there was just a bunch of drunks manually
assembling that Ford vehicle. The paint is peeling on the roof of a NEW car.

From my experience, don't buy made in the US. It is too expensive and the
quality is bad. I think the pay structure in this country is such that nobody
is paid "enough" to do quality work.

~~~
rockinghigh
What brand was it?

~~~
diebir
Ford

------
ryanmarsh
Toyota builds some of their trucks here and puts a sticker on the back "built
here, lives here" or something of that nature. I wonder if I can get something
similar for my Mac Pro?

~~~
bt848
Toyota doesn't even bother trying to market the Tundra outside the Americas,
since cowboy cosplay isn't terribly popular abroad, so it makes sense that
they are made here.

~~~
magduf
It's made sense to build Japanese and European cars in the US for a very long
time. Honda has had 2 plants in Ohio for at least a couple decades now, and
Toyota, BMW, and others have had plants here for a long time too. The US is
the world's largest auto market, and US labor rates are lower than Japanese or
German labor rates, plus there's a savings when you don't have to ship a
3-5000 pound object across an ocean, so of course it makes sense to build the
highest-volume models here where they're bought (especially models that don't
sell outside the US).

As for "cowboy cosplay", the Tundra doesn't make much sense elsewhere because
gas prices are generally higher in other industrial countries, and in less-
wealthy countries with low gas prices (like the middle east) they buy smaller
trucks (and wealthy people there don't buy trucks at all), so a large pickup
truck obviously isn't going to sell well there. America is just a unique place
where 1) gas prices are low, incentivizing buying larger vehicles, and 2)
personal wealth is high enough for middle-class people to afford a very large
truck, and 3) owning a truck for use as a commuter vehicle (rather than a
utilitarian vehicle) is esteemed for some odd reason.

~~~
blt
> _owning a truck for use as a commuter vehicle (rather than a utilitarian
> vehicle) is esteemed for some odd reason._

Isn't this basically what they meant by "cowboy cosplay"?

~~~
remarkEon
I've owned 4 cars in my life, a crappy 1995 Dodge Neon (May She Rest In
Peace), a Jeep Wrangler, an F-150, and a 3-Series BMW. By far the most
enjoyable driving experiences were with the Wrangler and F-150 - because of
the height of the cab. Sure, the BMW drives "better" and has tighter steering
and suspension etc, but sitting at that height gave you a view of the road
that not only made me feel safer while driving it also was just more
comfortable (I'm tall, 6'3"). I was in the military with those middle two
cars, and they obviously had other utility for me than the comfort. It isn't
just "cowboy cosplay".

~~~
magduf
No, it's cowboy cosplay.

The Wrangler is an utterly terrible vehicle by every measure, except for one,
and only one thing: going offroad. For any other use-case, it's the worst
pick. It sucks for fuel economy, reliability, value for money (they're
expensive), interior quality, stability (wheelbase is too short), towing
(again, the wheelbase), comfort, etc.

The truck at least is good at towing and carrying stuff, but how often do you
really do that stuff? For most truck owners, almost never; that's why I was
talking about using them as commuter vehicles being odd. You don't see this
much in other countries, and even for actual work use, they tend to use vans
instead of trucks. It's mostly Americans who love trucks (and some middle
easterners, who have found Toyota trucks are an inexpensive and reliable
platform for mounting a machine gun).

If driving height were really important to you for a commuting vehicle, you'd
get an SUV or CUV. Something like a Honda CR-V has ride/seat height along with
a much more comfortable cabin for passengers, and a more sensibly-sized engine
for good fuel economy, plus an overall smaller size so you aren't hogging
parking spaces in lots with smaller spaces.

 _This_ is what I was referring to (and what someone else here coined as
"cowboy cosplay"): Americans buy vehicles that are entirely ill-suited or
excessively large for what they're actually using them for.

------
computerex
At first I thought the headline said that Macbook Pro will be assembled in the
U.S and got super excited.

------
darkstar999
...where it has been manufactured since 2013.

------
m0zg
Good. It'd be also wise of them to diversify to other countries besides China.
They started doing so in India (after India basically banned their shit if
they don't make it there), but I hope they now see the lack of wisdom in
putting all their hundred billion dollar eggs into one basket.

As to Mac Pro, even if it's mostly assembled by robots, at that price level it
better be assembled by red blooded, gun totin', tobacco chewin' Texan robots.
There's just no excuse to do otherwise when your computer costs like a midsize
car.

------
resters
To the extent that Apple is _successful_ at lobbying for tariff exemptions,
what has happened is that Apple has diverted resources from the thing it is
actually good at (hardware and software) and has diverted them into legal and
lobbying fees.

We can't expect firms to excel in their core competencies when they are
hamstrung by politicians that are trying to reduce economic freedom worldwide.

Apple Computer exists _because_ of economic freedom, not in spite of it.

------
VikingCoder
1B + 0.2 * 5B = 2B

It's odd to me to describe that as "over $1 billion".

Either it's 2B, or the other part of that math isn't correct.

"To date, Apple has invested over $1 billion in American companies from its
Advanced Manufacturing Fund — deploying the entire $1 billion initial
investment and 20 percent of the $5 billion it subsequently committed to
spend."

~~~
bagacrap
The 20% is committed, so only partially spent so far, iiuc

~~~
VikingCoder
Thanks for the reply...

But that's really not a plain English reading of their statement:

"To date, Apple has invested over $1 billion in American companies from its
Advanced Manufacturing Fund — deploying the entire $1 billion initial
investment and 20 percent of the $5 billion it subsequently committed to
spend."

"Apple has deployed the entire $1B and 20% of $5B."

Is there a part of the sentence I'm missing which implies your reading is
correct?

Rephrasing: I suspect you're right about reality, and the sentence I quoted
was written by someone who didn't understand the reality, or was trying to
misrepresent reality.

------
kmlx
> As part of its commitment to US economic growth

This reads as a US government threat to a private company, followed by a
compromise.

1\. How much pressure did the US government put on Apple in order to for them
to release such a propaganda piece?

2\. And we're somehow pointing the finger at China?

3\. Finally what does $AAPL have to do with macro indicators such as US
economic growth?

------
jasoneckert
While this may be something that allows Apple to receive exemptions from
tariffs on other products (e.g. iPhone), it may not be the major reason. It
just makes sense that they'd continue assembling the Mac Pro 2019 in the same
facility as the Mac Pro 2013.

------
davidcollantes
When that happens, acquiring a Mac Pro will become ever more so difficult for
many of us. As it is right now I can't afford it. I can only assume pricing
will go up when production starts in the US.

------
notadoc
It's hard to imagine Apple selling many of these at their ultra high price
points, but perhaps it's only by selling a $10,000 Mac that Apple can make
them in the USA and maintain their desired margins?

------
dxxvi
Just checked on bestbuy.com, the Lenovo X1 Carbon 14" 1080p 8GB RAM 256GB SSD
laptop is $1580 where the Dell XPS 13.3" 4k 16GB RAM 256GB SSD is $1500.
Doesn't Dell make the xps 13 in China?

~~~
EugeneOZ
Dell makes them in China (received one of XPS today for my son). Difference
between 4k and 1080p can cost you about approx. 600-1000 USD (from my
experience of reviewing this market extensively few weeks ago). RAM difference
- about $100.

------
oneplane
Why would I as a buyer care what state or country the thing is built in? Seems
to me that is makes no difference as in both cases it is thousands of
kilometers away from me.

------
johnchristopher
Wait a freaking minute... I thought these jobs weren't coming back.
[https://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/business/apple-america-
an...](https://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/business/apple-america-and-a-
squeezed-middle-class.html) and
[https://money.cnn.com/2012/10/17/technology/apple-china-
jobs...](https://money.cnn.com/2012/10/17/technology/apple-china-jobs/)

~~~
brandon272
The authors of the articles likely weren't anticipating the U.S. to start a
trade war with China and implement protectionist measures that involve waiving
tariffs to specifically incentivize Apple to maintain manufacturing in the
USA:

"The US manufacturing of Mac Pro is made possible following a federal product
exclusion Apple is receiving for certain necessary components."

What I wonder is whether or not this is sustainable moving forward or only
intended to be a temporary "win" to create headlines. And can any company that
wants to manufacture in the U.S. avail themselves of "federal product
exclusions"?

------
leeoniya
i wonder why Texas?

making semiconductors tends to produce a lot of toxic waste. and Texas is
pretty lax on these issues, especially under the current administration.

[https://www.texastribune.org/2017/10/13/what-does-trumps-
rep...](https://www.texastribune.org/2017/10/13/what-does-trumps-repeal-
environmental-regulations-mean-texas/)

~~~
wmf
We're talking about assembly of the Mac Pro not semiconductors. Presumably
Apple chose Texas back in 2013 because they gave the biggest tax break, just
like every other company.

~~~
pickle-wizard
Though there are fabs in Texas. The 2 that I know of for sure are Samsung is
Austin about 5 miles down the road from the Flextronics plant that builds the
MacPro.

National Semiconductor has a fab up in Arlington Texas.

I'm not sure if Texas Instruments still has their fabs open or not, but they
had several at one point too. Sure there are more that I don't know about.

~~~
seltzered_
If you're referring to the 'Samsung Austin Semiconductor' in Tech Ridge, I
wonder how well the fab is aging. The last building I remember was built
primarily for NAND flash production back around 2007 (
[https://phys.org/news/2007-06-samsung-largest-wafer-
austin-t...](https://phys.org/news/2007-06-samsung-largest-wafer-austin-
texas.html) ).

Though chipdesign and not fab, also worth remembering Apple acquired Austin-
based Intrinsity in 2010
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intrinsity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intrinsity))

~~~
pickle-wizard
Samsung did expand the building a couple of years ago. IIRC it was to expand
the NAND production.

------
donatj
Is that why the stand is $1000?

------
aritmo
*assembled

------
plg
serious question: who is going to buy this machine (and the very expensive
monitor)? My best guess is that it's aimed squarely at video producers? Is
there another market?

~~~
vemv
Hackers from a variety of languages could be attracted by the high core count,
which allows one to test parallel programming easily and reap its benefits
first-hand.

I myself code in Clojure, have trivially parallelized some productivity
tooling.

~~~
hu3
Not me. I'll build a more powerful machine that is also easily upgradable and
future-proof. For a fraction of the price.

------
heeebeeejeebees
this headline is absurd, so many people will immediately jump to the
conclusion that this is related to China and tariffs, but no, it's been built
there for 6 years.

------
StartupJFox
It's ironic that Trump adopted Bernie Sanders' trade policy, which is opposed
by 99% of professional economists, and HN can't praise it enough.

Trade protectionism is the anti-vax movement of economic policy. It goes
against all the science, all the research, and all the empirical studies.

------
gregf
Please come with a button that makes a gun pop out!

------
Apofis
They're finally doing something with all that cash they have on hand. Good.
Congrats Texas.

------
noahwitt
This is good for security especially in light of the super micro incident with
China.

~~~
the-dude
Which incident? The Bloomberg incident?

------
aphextron
*Assembled

------
peter303
Even though I dont care for Mr Trump, I do like that Tim Cook and Trump meet
now and then to discuss various matters. I suspect Tim has educated Trump on
the complexity of global supply chains. And Trumps opinions may influence
Apples decisions a bit too.

Trump also has talks with GMs CEO Mary Barra.

------
sunkenvicar
The new Mac Pro was ready to be made in China. Then the Commander in Chief
ordered American companies to move. Thank you President Trump.

~~~
favorited
> The new Mac Pro was ready to be made in China

Citation needed.

The previous Mac Pro was already being made in Texas, so Trump resulted in no
change from the status quo.

~~~
sunkenvicar
[https://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-moves-mac-pro-
production-...](https://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-moves-mac-pro-production-
to-china-11561728769)

President Trump stopped these jobs from being shipped overseas to China.

------
dguaraglia
All 50 of them.

------
resters
This is good news only to those who devalue economic freedom. Thanks to the
tariffs (taxes) imposed by the administration, Apple has had to pay millions
of dollars in legal fees and undertake a buildout in Texas that is _very
likely not_ the best business decision.

In a few years, when the consequences of the suboptimal business decision have
occurred, nobody will remember that it was political games and meddling that
led to the wasting of (what will by that time) likely amount to billions of
dollars in added costs.

In my view, if we think Donald Trump is so good at making computers and
phones, we ought (as individuals) invest in his competitor to Apple and await
its success.

If not, then we ought to keep him as far away from the business decision
making of private sector firms as possible.

Already, government gets between $60 to $80 on every iPhone sold (sales tax).
When is enough enough?

------
dbg31415
Why Austin? Why not North Dakota, or West Virginia or some place that is
hurting for jobs.

~~~
espeed
It's not just Apple, and it's not just Austin. Tech is moving to Texas en
masse. There's several reasons why, and this is just the beginning...

~> Amazon just announced it's now adding 1400 tech jobs in Austin (600 more in
addition to the 800 it announced already).

~> Ericsson is adding 400 tech jobs and is opening its first 5G factor in
Dallas.

~> Google is building a 375-acre data center campus in Midlothian, Texas ("one
of the largest such projects in the country").

[1] "Amazon expanding Austin presence with 600 new tech jobs"
[https://www.statesman.com/news/20190919/amazon-expanding-
aus...](https://www.statesman.com/news/20190919/amazon-expanding-austin-
presence-with-600-new-tech-jobs)

[2] "Ericsson picks North Texas for its first 5G smart factory in the U.S."
[https://www.dallasnews.com/business/2019/09/19/ericsson-
pick...](https://www.dallasnews.com/business/2019/09/19/ericsson-picks-north-
texas-for-its-first-5g-smart-factory-in-the-u-s/)

[3] "Google's massive $600M data center takes shape in Ellis County as tech
giant ups Texas presence" [https://www.dallasnews.com/business/real-
estate/2019/06/14/g...](https://www.dallasnews.com/business/real-
estate/2019/06/14/google-s-massive-600m-data-center-takes-shape-in-ellis-
county-as-tech-giant-ups-texas-presence/)

~~~
selimthegrim
But is any part of that tech moving to Houston?

~~~
espeed
Part of it may be moving away from the coast. Until we can find a way to stop
hurricanes, likely not.

------
mehhh
Wow, Apple really likes to stick to the areas they know (Cupertino & Austin).

~~~
dymk
They all do. Major engineering presence sticks to tech hubs (which I realize
is tautological)

~~~
mehhh
Google and Amazon have both branched out much more than Apple, though Apple is
trying to open a Seattle office.

I'm just surprised they would choose Austin for manufacturing, as it means
they have long supply lines and have to build an industry that doesn't
currently exist in Austin.

~~~
empalms
Mac Pros have been coming out of Austin since 2013; the article details as
much. Furthermore, Austin's been a major center for the US semi-conductor
industry for quite some time.

Here are just a few orgs that have an Austin presence: \- Dell (HQ in Round
Rock) \- Apple \- Nvidia \- Qualcomm \- Intel \- Samsung \- AMD \- Silicon
Labs \- Cirrus Logic

------
readhn
I can see already a lot of people with money who are on the fence (PC vs MAC)
will buy Macbook pro just because it is MADE IN USA.

Should boost product sales for Apple!

~~~
ezzzzz
This announcement is for the new Mac Pro, not Macbook pro. In addition to the
waver Apple received to manufacture this with imported parts, I'm sure the
vertical targeted by the Mac Pro (see $45k top spec) and the relatively low
demand makes this viable.

~~~
readhn
gotcha. thanks for clarification!

------
alexnewman
I have completely given up on apple. I think the products are horrible.
However, I will purchase any computers which I can assembled in berry
compliant countries. Double points for the USA, apple just earned 10k from me.

~~~
alexnewman
I assume this was downvoted for being pro usa

~~~
souprock
"computers which I can assembled in berry compliant countries"

???

So "can" must be an adverb, which isn't something I've seen before. To "can
assemble" something could be that you assemble it while it is in a can, kind
of like building a ship in a bottle. Alternately, it could be that you used a
can to do the assembling, similar to "screwdriver assembled" but you used a
can. Hmmm.

To be "berry compliant" means following the rules of the berry. I'll guess
this relates to Berry Bitty City, where Strawberry Shortcake and her friends
live. You have to follow the rules, as we learn in the episode "Too Cool for
Rules".

It could have been clearer.

~~~
alexnewman
Might wanna google berry compliance. The fact people don't know about it is
even more frightful.
[https://www.acq.osd.mil/dpap/cpic/ic/berry_amendment_faq.htm...](https://www.acq.osd.mil/dpap/cpic/ic/berry_amendment_faq.html)

I was a vegetarian for 10 years and a vegan for 3. Now I realize that not
buying slave labor is more important than not eating animals.

------
flaka
As a european, i wont be buying this product as long as it’s not built in
Europe. If the us is pushing hard for buying made in usa, europeans have the
right to buy made in europe only.

~~~
radmarshallb
which electronics will you buy?

~~~
flaka
!= made in the us of a

------
brenden2
Manufacturing jobs in the US has been on a long, steady decline[1]. My pet
theory is that 1) people don't want these jobs and 2) people elsewhere (like
China) are more willing to take manufacturing jobs because it provides a
greater life quality boost there than it does here. What value does it bring
for the government to subsidize these industries? Other than helping someone's
chances in election cycles, I don't see the point.

I think the only reasonable way to stay relevant long term is for the US to
forget about manufacturing and focus on intellectual endeavors. Focus on
creating new technologies, exploring space, giving people greater mobility and
less red tape. Just my 2 cents.

[1]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_in_the_United_St...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_in_the_United_States)

~~~
mikeash
Manufacturing _employment_ has been on a long, steady decline. Manufacturing
_output_ is experiencing steady growth and has never been higher.

The US is the second largest manufacturer in the world and will stay that way
for the foreseeable future. Giving up on it would be a huge mistake. What we
can’t do is count on it to employ the masses.

~~~
rusk
Isn’t that just cooking the books though? I mean if the rump of manufacturing
gets done in a low cost economy, and mere assembly is performed onshore, what
kind of manufacturing is that really

~~~
mikeash
No, the US builds lots of real stuff. It’s not just assembly. Not by a long
shot.

The reason the trends are in opposite directions is because of increasing
productivity. The number of worker-hours needed to build a car is much lower
than in the past because of improved efficiency.

