Apple factories in India, including the country’s largest-ever production facility, are at full steam to roll out the iPhone 17, which launched late on Tuesday. This includes the Bengaluru unit of Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (Foxconn), largest contract manufacturer for iPhones. Experts say Foxconn’s facility is the largest by any company in India so far.

This is in terms of total manpower as well as potential value of production. The plant, built on nearly 300 acres, began test production of the new iPhone model this April. The factory currently employs around 25,000 workers, about a quarter of its full capacity of 100,000, people familiar with the details told ET.

Of the total workforce, nearly 90% are young women trained over the last four months to work on the latest models, the people said. Capacity at the factory vastly surpasses that of other Apple suppliers in India, including Tata Electronics or the erstwhile Wistron, and Pegatron, said executives in the know.

India has rapidly emerged as a major production hub for Apple. The country supplies nearly half of all iPhones sold in the US, and India-made iPhones are now made available globally on the first day of sales, unlike in the past, when initial demand was catered to by China and India-made phones came after a lag.

“Apple has been steadily shifting its supply chains (away) from China in a bid to diversify,” said an executive working in the electronics sector.

“Such huge factories used to make iPhones in China and the same will now happen in India, with the country’s largest factory now starting operations,” the executive added.