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.) <\/p>\n
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.<\/a><\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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\u00a0within a northwest Houston industrial park<\/a> at 8702 Fairbanks Road.<\/p>\n The iPhone maker said the Houston site is “on track to create thousands of jobs.” That includes a mix of \u00a0construction and on-site workers, although an exact headcount wasn’t provided.<\/p>\n The tech giant is still actively hiring, working with Houston City College to recruit local talent.<\/p>\n BIG PICTURE: Houston is getting AI factories from Apple, Nvidia. Can the city rise to the moment?<\/a><\/p>\n “We’re thrilled to be shipping American-made advanced servers from our Houston facility,” said\u00a0Sabih Khan, Apple’s Chief Operating Officer. \u00a0“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.”<\/p>\n Apple Intelligence is the AI system behind iPhone features such as Siri,\u00a0Genmoji, live translation and proofreading.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n The move comes amid ongoing tariffs tensions and President Trump’s push to onshore more high-tech manufacturing.<\/p>\n Chipmaker Nvidia is also expanding its manufacturing in the U.S., including building a new AI supercomputer site in Houston.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Taiwan-based\u00a0Foxconn – which builds hardware for both Apple and\u00a0Nvidia – is\u00a0ramping up its AI talent pipeline<\/a> in the region. Foxconn will operate both projects separately in Houston on behalf of Apple and Nvidia.<\/p>\n Together, experts say, these efforts could help to establish Houston as an emerging U.S. hub for artificial intelligence manufacturing.<\/p>\n Construction is ongoing at Apple’s new AI plant in northwest Houston, but operations have already started. (Apple Inc.) <\/p>\n