Apple opened its new Advanced Manufacturing Center in Houston on August 1, 2026, positioning the facility as a training hub for small- and medium-sized businesses. The center sits inside the same Houston facility that builds and ships Apple's advanced AI servers, and that site will begin manufacturing Mac mini this year.
The AMC marks Apple's second U.S. manufacturing learning site, where experts teach participants processes used to make Apple products.
The kickoff event brought together U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, Senator Ted Cruz, Houston Mayor John Whitmire, Representative Christian Menefee, and Harris County Precinct One Commissioner Rodney Ellis with Apple leaders and the center's first cohort of business leaders for a full day of hands-on training.
The curriculum spans classroom sessions on advanced manufacturing principles for final assembly and design considerations for printed circuit board assembly, plus interactive workshops using the site's representative production facility. The first cohort is learning machine-learning-driven quality control and advanced automation from Apple engineers, including how to identify and adapt to production challenges in real time and gain hands-on experience assembling and laser etching a product.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company invested hundreds of millions of dollars into the Houston facility in less than nine months, stood up a factory, started production, and shipped the first advanced AI servers off the line. Cook said Apple is pleased to begin Mac mini production later this year.
The AMC builds on the Apple Manufacturing Academy, which opened in Detroit in August 2025 and has helped nearly 1,000 American companies learn smart manufacturing techniques and integrate AI into production processes. The academy's virtual programming offers on-demand learning covering automation, quality control optimization, and machine learning with vision.
As programming expands, the AMC will offer the same hands-on training to local college students. Businesses interested in the center can sign up to be notified for future sessions.
