Apple commits up to $100m for US-made titanium in foldable iPhone push

Apple has committed to buying up to $100 million of titanium over the next three years from Pennsylvania-based Perryman Company, as part of its push to expand manufacturing in the United States, the company announced on Tuesday (Reuters).

The purchase agreement, struck through Apple’s American Manufacturing Program, covers titanium for various products including its first foldable phone, the iPhone Duo (Reuters). The announcement was reported by Reuters, MacRumors, 9to5mac and the Economic Times, and detailed in an Apple press release carried by BusinessWire.

At its site in Houston, Pennsylvania, Perryman will melt, forge and roll titanium with a minimum of 80 percent recycled content, Apple said. The company is a family-owned business and, in Apple’s words, “a global leader in manufacturing specialty titanium products” (BusinessWire).

The titanium will form the grade 5 titanium enclosure of the iPhone Duo, which Apple describes as “exceptionally strong”, providing “amazing durability to the first foldable iPhone” (BusinessWire; 9to5mac).

Apple also said it is expanding its partnership with Qnity Electronics, headquartered in Delaware, to produce technology for the new variable aperture in the iPhone 18 Pro camera system (BusinessWire). Qnity, which joined the American Manufacturing Program in March, will produce advanced films essential to the new variable-aperture system, which Apple says is “the most advanced Apple has ever made” (BusinessWire; 9to5mac). Variable aperture sits at the heart of the new 48MP Fusion Main camera, enabling control of light and depth (BusinessWire).

“American ingenuity is vital to all our products, from the titanium crafted for iPhone Duo to breakthrough camera innovations in iPhone 18 Pro,” said Sabih Khan, Apple’s chief operating officer (BusinessWire; MacRumors).

Apple said nearly 100 components in the iPhone Duo and iPhone 18 Pro — from wireless chips to the silicon powering key functions — are produced by American companies and drawn from suppliers in more than a dozen states (Reuters; BusinessWire). The company named further milestones: TSMC’s Arizona fab will produce more than 100 million chips for Apple in 2026, while Corning’s Kentucky facility will make all cover glass for iPhones and Apple Watches sold worldwide by the end of the year (Reuters; Economic Times; 9to5mac).

Apple launched the American Manufacturing Program last year as part of its $600-billion, four-year commitment to US manufacturing and innovation (Reuters; BusinessWire). In August, it opened an Advanced Manufacturing Center in Houston, Texas, inside the same facility that builds its AI servers and will begin making Mac minis this year (Reuters; BusinessWire).