SAN FRANCISCO — A cyber breach at Indian Apple supplier Tata Electronics has become a focal point for Beijing, which is using the incident to argue against moving production out of China.
Hacking group World Leaks claimed responsibility for the attack. Stolen data included parts lists, supplier information and photos of Apple's unreleased iPhone 18 Pro models, which are widely expected to ship this September.
Tata Electronics confirmed a cybersecurity incident and said it had no impact on operations. The company did not specify whether any materials or data were stolen.
Apple declined to comment on the leak or its supply chain plans. The company began producing its iPhone 17 series in India last year, marking the first time its top devices were made there—a move that reflects a broader push by U.S. companies to diversify manufacturing as geopolitical tensions rise.
China's authorities have expressed alarm about India's bid for iPhone production. The Communist Party's Global Times warned in July of "systemic weaknesses in Made in India" and argued that replicating complex supply chains elsewhere is not easy. China competes with lower-cost nations to retain manufacturing, aiming to secure jobs and maintain leverage over trading partners.
A May report by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Rhodium Group said China uses regulations and economic coercion to strengthen its grip on critical supply chains, deterring companies from moving production elsewhere. China has tightened controls on critical minerals and processing technologies, extended restrictions to downstream products through extraterritorial rules and introduced legal instruments that raise costs for firms and governments seeking to diversify.
Despite the breach, the incident is unlikely to alter Apple's long-term supply chain strategy. In Shenzhen's Huaqiangbei electronics market, technicians who specialize in refurbishing and repairing devices said recreating an iPhone 18 Pro from leaked drawings is "almost impossible."
"You can't really make anything from those drawings. At most, you could make phone cases," said Guo Youliang, a seller in Huaqiangbei. Technicians there cannot access key components such as chips or proprietary software needed to build a complete device.
"They might look like an iPhone, but the insides are different," said Wang Shun, an iPhone repair specialist, speaking from his stall.
One example of the limits of copying: a $29 device resembling an iPhone 17 Pro—complete with its cosmic orange color—runs Android, not Apple's iOS. Apple stopped producing mini-sized iPhones after the iPhone 13 Mini.
Apple shares traded at $309.38, up two percent, signaling that markets have not reacted negatively to the Tata breach.
