Apple’s Houston factory has begun shipping American-made servers to power Apple Intelligence. The north Houston facility will continue expanding with plans to increase production next year, Apple said. (Melissa Golden/Apple Inc.)
Apple has started shipping servers from its new artificial intelligence plant in Houston, marking a major step toward the region’s potential to become an AI hub.
Originally slated to open next year, the 250,000-square-foot facility in North Houston started operations ahead of schedule, Apple said in a statement Thursday.
However, construction is still ongoing, with local contractors expected to continue to build out and expand its Houston plant, Apple said. The project is underway within a northwest Houston industrial park at 8702 Fairbanks Road.
The iPhone maker said the Houston site is “on track to create thousands of jobs.” That includes a mix of  construction and on-site workers, although an exact headcount wasn’t provided.
The tech giant is still actively hiring, working with Houston City College to recruit local talent.
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“We’re thrilled to be shipping American-made advanced servers from our Houston facility,” said Sabih Khan, Apple’s Chief Operating Officer.  “As part of our $600 billion commitment to the United States, these servers will be installed in our data centers and play a key role in powering Apple Intelligence with Private Cloud Compute.”
Construction is ongoing at Apple’s new AI plant in northwest Houston, but operations have already started. (Apple Inc.)
Apple Intelligence is the AI system behind iPhone features such as Siri, Genmoji, live translation and proofreading.
The Houston site is part of Apple’s previously announced initiative to bring more of its supply chain and advanced manufacturing to the United States.
The move comes amid ongoing tariffs tensions and President Trump’s push to onshore more high-tech manufacturing.
Chipmaker Nvidia is also expanding its manufacturing in the U.S., including building a new AI supercomputer site in Houston.
Meanwhile, Taiwan-based Foxconn – which builds hardware for both Apple and Nvidia – is ramping up its AI talent pipeline in the region. Foxconn will operate both projects separately in Houston on behalf of Apple and Nvidia.
Together, experts say, these efforts could help to establish Houston as an emerging U.S. hub for artificial intelligence manufacturing.
This article originally published at Apple’s AI plant in Houston quietly starts operations months ahead of schedule.