Who Supplies Apple? The Network Behind Every iPhone

Apple designs the iPhone and its own chips, but building hundreds of millions of them a year takes a tight network of Asian assemblers, Korean and Taiwanese chipmakers, and a handful of Western materials suppliers. Here's who they are.

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Aug 9, 2026 · 3 min read

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Apple designs the iPhone, Mac, and iPad, and increasingly the chips inside them, but it doesn't own a single factory that builds a finished device. Every iPhone comes out of a supply chain that runs through Taiwan, China, South Korea and Japan. Apple coordinates it, and other companies build it.

The short answer

Apple's suppliers split into three groups:

• Assembly: Foxconn and Luxshare Precision physically assemble iPhones and AirPods, mostly in China and India.
• Chips and memory: TSMC fabricates Apple's A-series and M-series silicon, Samsung and SK hynix supply memory, and Samsung also supplies displays.
• Components: Corning's cover glass, Sony's camera sensors, and Qualcomm and Broadcom's wireless chips make up most of the rest of the parts list.

The interactive, tier-by-tier map with live tickers is on Apple's supply chain page. This post tells the story behind it.

Who assembles the iPhone

Foxconn (Hon Hai Precision Industry) is Apple's largest contract manufacturer, Its assembly lines turn components into finished iPhones at huge scale in China and, more and more, in India. Luxshare Precision, a Chinese assembler, has grown fast in the same role, building AirPods and taking on a rising share of iPhone assembly.

That concentration is Apple's best-known supply chain risk. Most of its assembly capacity sits in one region, so any disruption there hits production directly. That's why Apple has spent years moving more assembly to India, though China still does most of it.

Who supplies the components

A few specialists supply most of the remaining parts. Corning makes the Ceramic Shield and Gorilla Glass that protect every iPhone screen. Sony has supplied the CMOS image sensors behind the iPhone camera, which is why Samsung's Austin deal matters. Qualcomm and Broadcom provide the 5G modems and wireless chips that connect the phone to a network, even as Apple builds more of its own modem silicon over time.

Behind TSMC's fabs are the equipment makers its process nodes rely on: ASML for lithography and Applied Materials for the deposition and etch systems that build each transistor layer.

Who buys the finished phones

On the customer side, US wireless carriers AT&T and Verizon are among Apple's largest retail channels, selling iPhones on installment and upgrade plans to the bulk of the American market.

See it for yourself

From the outside, Apple's supply chain is just a phone with an Apple logo. Underneath, a shortage at one Taiwanese foundry or one Dutch equipment maker can push back the release of the next iPhone. The full breakdown, with live tickers for every public company involved, is on Apple's supply chain map.