Apple’s sapphire ambitions with GT Advanced Technology have been a complete disaster. But even though the plan to turn Mesa, Arizona, into the Sapphire Capital of the West failed, Apple executives are still looking for a way to repurpose GT’s new factory.
The city of Mesa and Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer bent over backward to bring Apple to the Grand Canyon State, but now that GTAT plans to shut down operations, Apple says it’s still committed to helping the area.
“We’re going to continue evaluating GTAT’s progress on larger sapphire boule development, as well as consider other options for the facility,” an Apple spokeswoman told Re/code. “We remain committed to the city and we’re going to work with Mesa and Maricopa County to help the GT Advanced employees who will be impacted by this find new jobs.”
GTAT filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this month after its failure to meet performance requirements kept the company from receiving its final $139 million payment from Apple. As a result of the company’s bankruptcy, more than 650 employees have been laid off. The plant opened less than a year ago.
The sapphire glass factory was expected to bring in over 2,000 jobs and $1 billion to the Mesa area, but after the project failed to produce a single sapphire iPhone display, Apple and GTAT reached a $439 million settlement to end all current agreements.
Source: Recode
Buster Hein is a freelance writer who lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Twitter: @bst3r.
4 responses to “Apple looks to repurpose Arizona factory after GTAT bankruptcy”
Sapphire has so many uses so it wouldn’t make sense for Apple to give up on it simply because it doesn’t fit into their immediate iPhone plans. The medical community can certainly benefit from high-quality sapphire cutting tools. I hope Apple continues to support the sapphire industry. I feel badly for all those employees that had to lose their jobs after their hopes were raised thinking they’d have some stable, long-term employment. It must have been quite a shock to see the business fail so quickly.
I’m not sure disaster is the right world – Apple might lose a few millions on the deal and it’s a hassle but they pretty much announced NOTHING other than a watch screen (and other companies can do the small screen) … it’s not like iphone 6 sales are hurting without sapphire … and a few or even a hundred millions in losses for Apple – what’s that? about 5 minutes of sales? GT sais they would pay back apple – apple might buy the factory and sell it another sapphire maker …
Just for the record, iphone 6 does in fact have 2 pieces of sapphire in it. The camera and Touch ID.
Are we about to see some VERY big investment into sapphire tech from Apple now? They can afford the investment and I’m sure they are aware of the returns if they get it working to the levels they want. This could be a cool new adventure for Apple.