Apple’s Tim Cook pleased with progress on US silicon supply chain

In an interview with CNBC’s Jim Cramer, Apple CEO Tim Cook struck an optimistic tone about the iPhone maker’s progress bringing more manufacturing to the U.S., indicating that the company is making headway with a number of projects.

“Since we announced a $500 billion commitment toward the beginning of the year, we were continually working to come up with more ways to bring manufacturing into the United States,” Cook said. “It’s not really bringing it back, because that manufacturing was not here to begin with, right? And we came up with several things that we could do and do more of.”

Cook spoke with Cramer from inside Corning‘s Kentucky glass factory, where Apple has pledged $2.5 billion so the facility can make glass for all iPhones and Apple Watches. This investment is a fraction of the whopping $600 billion investment Apple has said it will make in domestic manufacturing over the next four years. In February, the company announced it would commit $500 billion, which includes funds for a new artificial intelligence server factory in Texas. In August, Apple announced it would spend an additional $100 billion on U.S. companies and suppliers.

Cook told Cramer he was “really pleased” with Apple’s efforts to stitch together an end-to-end silicon supply chain. He said he wants to scale chip production, but also pointed to Apple’s claim that the U.S. silicon supply chain is on track to produce 19 billion chips for Apple products this year. He brought up Apple’s investment in Taiwan Semiconductor‘s chip fabrication plant, which is to be the most advanced in the U.S. Cook also mentioned Apple’s deal with MP Materials for rare earth magnets.

“A lot of advanced manufacturing can be done in this country and be done competitively in this country,” Cook said.

Cook told Cramer that Apple is “in constant communication” with the Trump administration about the progress of the investments. Trump announced last month that he would impose a 100% tariff on imports of semiconductors and chips — except for companies like Apple that are “building in the United States.”

“We have a very good relationship. It’s very positive,” Cook said of the Trump administration. “And to their credit, they are focused on regulation and trying to decrease the amount of regulation that it requires to build a new factory, to build a new data center, etc.”

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Disclaimer The CNBC Investing Club Charitable Trust owns shares of Apple.