apple inc AAPL advanced its preparations to move some of its manufacturing outside of China. These include major iPhone assembly plants, which have been routinely disrupted by China’s tough COVID-19 regulations, with large workers’ protests in November.

In late September, the company announced that it had started assembling iPhone 14 models in India, localizing the current lineup in the world’s second-biggest smartphone market for the first time, as analysts predicted a major shift in future manufacturing of the American predict giants.

Away from China, Apple has three partners in India: Foxconn, Wistron and Pegatron.

It has two partners in Vietnam, Luxshare and inventorresponsible for the AirPods and HomePods product lines.

Apple Analyst Ming Chi Kuo predicted last month that India could account for up to 45% of iPhone production.

Corresponding kate whitehead, For a former Apple operations manager who now runs her own supply chain consulting firm, bringing all the elements together to produce at the volume Apple needs is a difficult process.

Apple relied on China for a variety of reasons, including political stability, a huge workforce, and the country as a significant market for Apple products.

The ongoing COVID-19 lockdowns across China have made things worse for Apple. Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives told The Wall Street Journal China’s COVID-19 Policy was “an absolute punch in the stomach for Apple’s supply chain” and “this last month in China was the straw that broke the camel’s back in China”.

Separately Apple and Nvidia Corporation NVDA are willing to be two of the first customers for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co TSM new facility in Arizona, which is expected to begin producing some of the world’s most advanced chips as early as next year.

According to people aware of the matter, Apple will be the factory’s key launch customer when it begins production, with Nvidia expected to follow…