Apple snaps up massive manufacturing space in Milpitas, California

Posted:
in General Discussion
Apple has reportedly secured a 10-year lease for a Milpitas warehouse measuring almost 314,000 square feet, raising questions about the company's intentions.

Milpitas McCarthy Creekside


The facility is an "industrial manufacturing space" located at McCarthy Creekside, a new multiphase development, according to the Silicon Valley Business Journal. It's a single-story building, for which Apple is rumored to be paying about 90 cents per square foot.

The Apple deal is said to have shrunk Silicon Valley's warehouse vacancy rate from 1.5 percent to only 0.7. Firms like Google and Micron have also been snapping up industrial space around San Jose, the latter for instance claiming over 600,000 square feet in the northern part of the city.

Developer Joey McCarthy told the Journal that McCarthy Creekside is intended for "industrial, R&D, [and] manufacturing" purposes. Apple is most likely to be interested in storage or R&D, since very little of its manufacturing is in-house, and none of that takes place in the United States.

If R&D, it's not clear what the company would be developing. One possibility is its self-driving car platform, since the company is known to use scattered Bay Area facilities for that work, and Lexus vehicles with test equipment are a regular sight on the region's roads. The company has even had two accidents involving those vehicles so far, though Apple's AI doesn't appear to have been at fault.

Apple was at one point rumored to have shifted focus from a self-designed electric car to simply creating technology for ridehailing, but more recently analyst Ming-Chi Kuo -- known for his connections in the Apple supply chain -- has claimed that the company is indeed aiming for its own car, rolling out between 2023 and 2025.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 24
    HumintHumint Posts: 1unconfirmed, member
    " Apple is most likely to be interested in storage or R&D, since very little of its manufacturing is in-house, and none of that takes place in the United States. "
    None?
    The Mac Pro?
    doozydozenanantksundaramDon47watto_cobra
  • Reply 2 of 24
    Humint said:
    " Apple is most likely to be interested in storage or R&D, since very little of its manufacturing is in-house, and none of that takes place in the United States. "
    None?
    The Mac Pro?

    That is exactly what I was thinking.
    cornchipdoozydozenwatto_cobra
  • Reply 3 of 24
    tyler82tyler82 Posts: 1,100member
    I thought the iMac was built in U.S.
  • Reply 4 of 24
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,801member
    tyler82 said:
    I thought the iMac was built in U.S.
    The iMac is built in China, except certain education iMacs (at least last I knew). The only Mac made in the US is the current Mac Pro which I believe is made in Texas. 
    edited October 2018 macseeker
  • Reply 5 of 24
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,801member
    I'm waiting for the comments about the iPhone being made in the US....Never gonna happen folks!
  • Reply 6 of 24
    jdwjdw Posts: 1,324member
    They Mac the overpriced Mac Pro in the USA, so they could make other equally overpriced Macs in the US as well.  It all depends on how things pan out politically.  But unless China makes concessions that please the President, Apple may be forced into using more expensive US labor to create their products.  Even so, it would make more sense to build them in North Dakota, Oregon, or another state with lower overhead.  California is no place to manufacture anything and is almost too expensive a state for the average person to live.
    macseekerentropyscornchipravnorodomdoozydozenwatto_cobra
  • Reply 7 of 24
    Hmmm, Milpitas is about 16 miles away from Cupertino.

    This site could be retrofitted to develop, build and store test cars and to service the Apple shuttles.
    Apple will not ship the Volkswagen shuttles back to Europe once the land in Cupertino.
    The site looks unfinished.
    Time will tell.
    Thrashmancornchipwatto_cobra
  • Reply 8 of 24
    JFC_PAJFC_PA Posts: 932member
    Employee housing? 

    California being the the fifth largest economy on the planet. 

    “California's economy has surpassed that of the United Kingdom to become the world's fifth largest, according to new federal data made public Friday.

    California's gross domestic product rose by $127 billion from 2016 to 2017, surpassing $2.7 trillion, the data said”


    http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-california-economy-gdp-20180504-story.html

    edited October 2018 cornchipstantheman
  • Reply 9 of 24
    Humint said:
    " Apple is most likely to be interested in storage or R&D, since very little of its manufacturing is in-house, and none of that takes place in the United States. "
    None?
    The Mac Pro?
    Why would Apple rent a facility that large for the Mac Pro? I think they would use the same facility in Austin. 
  • Reply 10 of 24
    entropysentropys Posts: 4,152member
    JFC_PA said:
    Employee housing? 

    SpamSandwichravnorodomStrangeDaysdoozydozenJFC_PAcornchipburnside
  • Reply 11 of 24
    asciiascii Posts: 5,936member
    If Ming-Chi Kuo is right and they are going to make their own car, that is something you would manufacture in the US since the cost of shipping from China would be too high. Also the supply chain for cars does exist in the US.
    dave marsh
  • Reply 12 of 24
    Difinately not used for “storage”.  Apple doesn’t believe in “storage”.  Storage is dead money.

    looks like this confirms Apple will build a car.

    just don’t understand why they would Lease it - and not just buy it.
    lostkiwi
  • Reply 13 of 24
    radarthekatradarthekat Posts: 3,842moderator
    Difinately not used for “storage”.  Apple doesn’t believe in “storage”.  Storage is dead money.

    looks like this confirms Apple will build a car.

    just don’t understand why they would Lease it - and not just buy it.
    Maybe at this stage the flexibility that leasing provides is a higher priority.  The next few years should be interesting as their transportation initiative plays out.  
  • Reply 14 of 24
    Difinately not used for “storage”.  Apple doesn’t believe in “storage”.  Storage is dead money.

    looks like this confirms Apple will build a car.

    just don’t understand why they would Lease it - and not just buy it.
    I have a feeling they'll be test driving prototype cars indoors, away from prying eyes and satellite imaging.
    cornchipclaire1watto_cobra
  • Reply 15 of 24
    Difinately not used for “storage”.  Apple doesn’t believe in “storage”.  Storage is dead money.

    looks like this confirms Apple will build a car.

    just don’t understand why they would Lease it - and not just buy it.
    I have a feeling they'll be test driving prototype cars indoors, away from prying eyes and satellite imaging.
    It’ll probably be the site of something mundane, like a holding facility for shrinkwrap.
    StrangeDaysrandominternetpersonburnside
  • Reply 16 of 24
    StrangeDaysStrangeDays Posts: 12,834member
    jdw said:
    They Mac the overpriced Mac Pro in the USA, so they could make other equally overpriced Macs in the US as well.  It all depends on how things pan out politically.  But unless China makes concessions that please the President, Apple may be forced into using more expensive US labor to create their products.  Even so, it would make more sense to build them in North Dakota, Oregon, or another state with lower overhead.  California is no place to manufacture anything and is almost too expensive a state for the average person to live.
    What equally overpriced Macs? I paid fair prices on all three of my current macs and they’ve lasted me many years. My desktop is a fully loaded 2011 iMac, the TCO was completely worth it, a good value, and not overpriced. 
    edited October 2018 Rayz2016doozydozenburnsideclaire1lovemnradarthekatwatto_cobra
  • Reply 17 of 24
    christophbchristophb Posts: 1,482member
    Fully automated iPhone assembly?  Robots making robots... How could that go wrong? 
  • Reply 18 of 24
    JFC_PAJFC_PA Posts: 932member
    Fully automated iPhone assembly?  Robots making robots... How could that go wrong? 
    They started that with the MAC Classic. Iirc they head of that effort went on to work on Iridium satellite assembly, for that network they needed so many satellites for coverage they couldn’t build them the old by hand way: so they hired out of Apple. 
  • Reply 19 of 24
    entropysentropys Posts: 4,152member
    Actually I would love Apple to make a satellite phone. Current ones are rubbish, basically unchanged in 20 years. All still bricks.  
    Iridium has a base station that works with multiple smartphones.  That could be one hell of a lot more user friendly too.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 20 of 24
    JFC_PAJFC_PA Posts: 932member
    entropys said:
    Actually I would love Apple to make a satellite phone. Current ones are rubbish, basically unchanged in 20 years. All still bricks.  
    Iridium has a base station that works with multiple smartphones.  That could be one hell of a lot more user friendly too.
    A start up tried that a few years back: smartphone when near cell towers, sat phone otherwise: went bust. AT&T: https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2369440,00.asp
    edited October 2018
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