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We came here to Harrodsburg, Kentucky to check out Courtney's facility that will soon produce all the covered glass for the iPhone and the Apple Watch. Thanks to a major upcoming expansion. Earlier today, I got the chance to speak with Wendell Weeks. He's the chairman and CEO of Corning and Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple. Take a look. Well, Tim and Wendell, this is just an incredible place. And I want to start with Wendell, our host, to say, what the heck are we doing in Harrodsburg, Kentucky?
Got to love a great manufacturing plant, but the news today really is about Apple. What we're doing here is we're dedicating 100% of this facility to Apple, to produce 100% of the cover glass for all the iPhones made in the world will now be made in Harrodsburg, Kentucky.
Well, it's kind of amazing because I think people might have thought at one time or another, you can't make this stuff in America. This is the kind of thing that I think we got away from. Tim. Didn't people just say, you know what, let's just outsource this to some place that costs a lot less and it will all be the same quality anyway.
You know what? What we do is we look at a lot of things when we decide who to work with. And one of the most important ones is innovation. Corning brings so much innovation to the table. The phone that you're holding obviously is so thin and so light, but we want it to be the most durable phone ever. And so the ceramic shield that Wendell really brings to the table here, with our help, allows that. It's one of the enablers of that. And so we look at a lot of things when we decide who to partner with.
Right now, partnering with I mean, you're talking about putting a $2.5 billion commitment. Yeah. What are these the kind of things, Tim, where we have no idea right now in our brains, we can't comprehend what could come from here. But because of the ingenuity of this place and your innovation center, we're going to see things that we just can't even dream of right now.
That's absolutely true. I mean, we have our engineering teams work together, and they're already working on future generations. But today we're talking about the Ceramic Shield two, and we couldn't be prouder of the accomplishment from the teams.
Well, we thought Gorilla Glass was the most powerful, strongest thing in the world. Tell us why we want this. Because it's first of all, I mean, I can tell you it's light. That doesn't take a genius. But there's something about this that is, I guess you could say, almost indestructible.
Yes. Well, it's about 50% stronger than the first ceramic shield. And then Apple wanted that so that they could do this creative and stunning design. Because when you're trying to make something that basically is a glass shell and at the same time super light, but people's use case is the same. They want they came to us to ask us for something more durable.
Well, let's talk about the supply chain issue. We often hear, well, the president is saying, listen, one day I want the iPhone to be made here, not anywhere else. I think, don't you have to start piece by piece? You need to let's say you need glass end to end. And you're doing that here.
Yeah. That's right. The glass is a very key component of the iPhone. You know, it's what you hold. It's what the front has become is a sheet of glass. That was our vision from the onset to get it to that. And so it's a key component. And of course there are other key components as well. The system on a chip that's in there. We are beginning the process this year of building system on a chips in Arizona with TSMC. And so there's a lot of things that we're doing in the United States, and a lot that we can do, frankly.
Now my travel trust has a position in Apple. It's long standing. I know I always expect Apple to be doing the best for customers, best for shareholders. Is it right to put $2.5 billion here? Is this the best place, or is there also another component that you have to do, which is you have to say we also want to help the workforce.
This is the place to put it. And so I feel very confident in that because when you look at innovation, when you look at the cost, when you look at the quality, these are all things that factor into our decisions. This is a great place.
Is it not true that there will be people who try to replicate this? But because of the standards of Corning, which we all know for going back decades and decades, they can't do it. They may even have the specs and they can't. They can't imitate it. Why?
Well, you have two. And when it comes to Apple products, there's two things that are super hard to replicate. First is our expertise that we bring from 175 years of this being our slice of the periodic table. But then on top of that, we work with Apple. We've been doing almost two decades in joint teams where Apple people are here all the time. They're in our labs all the time, and everything we do for Apple is 100% only for Apple. And so this becomes integrated right from the sand to the design. And this type of high integration makes it almost impossible to replicate.
You also work with Samsung. They're a valued client. How about if they say, you know what, we want some of that technology that the Apple 2.5 billion technology. What happens? I mean I know you couldn't be happy if that occurs.
So we say no. And what we say to Samsung is if you want to work with us to innovate and you're going to develop a new to the world material, we'll be happy to work with you on that. But Apple's materials are Apple's materials.
Now, when you say that everything's going to be made here, was it? I think people say, oh, come on, it was always made there. Anyway, that's not true. You are moving and bringing jobs here. That used to be elsewhere, because you want to make it in America and make it strong.
