President Donald Trump on Thursday urged Apple to shift manufacturing to the United States, saying he recently told the company's chief executive, Tim Cook, that he disapproves of the decision to move part of its supply chain to India.
"I said to him, 'My friend, I treated you very good. You're coming here with $500 billion, but now I hear you're building all over India. I don't want you building in India,'" Trump said Thursday in Qatar.
Trump appeared to reference Apple's vow in February to invest $500 billion in the U.S over the next four years, which the company says will go toward additional hiring and a new server factory in Texas.
But a U.S.-bound relocation of Apple's supply chain is highly unlikely, industry analysts told ABC News, pointing to the time and expense necessary to overhaul production -- as well as the ongoing cost of higher wages commanded by workers in the U.S.
In theory, the U.S. could host final assembly of Apple products like the iPhone, but even that would take several years and result in higher prices for shoppers, who may then turn to cheaper alternatives, some analysts said.
"Anything is possible, provided you have a long enough timeframe and don't care about profitability," Avi Greengart, lead analyst at research firm Techsponential, told ABC News.
"It's an incredibly global supply chain. If you want to move it to the U.S., you're talking about many years, possibly decades," Greengart added.