Apple beats Nvidia, but its Indian factories keep giving it headaches: there's a new fatal accident

Ever since Apple reclaimed its crown and overtook Nvidia in terms of market capitalization, the gap between the two giants keeps on growing.

It's not like Apple doesn't have its fair share of problems. The all-new iPhone Duo, the first foldable iPhone, for example, started the infamous Crackgate. The $2,000 Duo's inner display cracks without extra abuse, if you can imagine.

But, as bad as that may be, at least the Duo doesn't come with labels such as "spy", "extramarital affair" and "leaking state secrets" attached to it. Something that Nvidia can't say right now…

Apple's woes in India

Reuters reports that there was an accident at a Tata Electronics factory (where they manufacture iPhone parts) in India, causing three workers to pass away from asphyxiation on Monday. Investigations have been started already and the causes of the incident will soon be clear.

Reuters, however, has compiled a list of Apple's issues in India ever since it tried to move away from China. The aforementioned incident is the latest hit on Cupertino's supply chain in India.

The 2024–2026 period

Between June and July 2026, a ransomware group published more than 200,000 files allegedly stolen from a Tata Electronics iPhone assembly plant (in Hosur, India). The leaked material reportedly included confidential supplier information and photos of Apple's then-unreleased iPhone 18 Pro. Tata responded by tightening access to sensitive internal systems and bringing in an international consultant to investigate the breach.

Shortly before that, in June 2026, Tata's iPhone component factory in Hosur also came under scrutiny from Tamil Nadu's pollution control board over alleged wastewater contamination affecting wells on nearby farmland. The company maintained that independent tests showed it was complying with environmental regulations.

In January 2025, India's National Human Rights Commission criticized labor officials for failing to properly investigate allegations of employment discrimination at Foxconn's iPhone factory. However, a subsequent investigation cleared the company of wrongdoing. In November 2024, Foxconn instructed its Indian recruitment agencies to remove age, gender and marital status requirements from job advertisements. The move followed a Reuters investigation that found the company had systematically excluded married women from assembly-line positions at its southern Indian facility.

In September 2024, a fire broke out in a chemical storage area at Tata's Hosur factory, forcing the company to suspend iPhone component production for several days.

The 2020–2023 period

The problems pile on, as in September 2023, Pegatron temporarily halted iPhone assembly at its Chennai factory after a fire broke out at the facility. In the same year, but in February, Foxlink (iPhone charger manufacturer) suspended operations at its assembly plant after a fire caused part of the building to collapse.

In December 2021, Foxconn shut down its factory near Chennai for more than three weeks after around 250 workers fell ill, triggering protests. Apple later determined that the facility had failed to meet its required standards. In December 2020, workers at Wistron's factory in Narsapura, damaged company property during protests over unpaid wages. The incident forced the Taiwanese manufacturer to close the facility for three months. Wistron eventually sold its Indian operations to Tata Group in 2023.

Read more about Apple:

• Apple's iPhone Air 2 could look very different, and here's our first look
• Apple Store customers were allegedly subscribed to Apple services without their consent
• Even if Crackgate wasn't Apple's fault, it's still Apple's fault. You said it and I agree 100%

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