Will Apple’s Sprawling New Factory Be Used to Manufacture Cars?

Apple signed a 10-year lease on a sprawling new industrial facility in Milpitas, California, according to a report from The Silicon Valley Business Journal.

Described as a single-story warehouse measuring almost 314,000 square feet, the facility is located in an “industrial manufacturing space” at McCarthy Creekside — a new multiphase development intended for “industrial, R&D, [and] manufacturing” purposes, according to the project’s lead supervisor, Joey McCarthy.

Milpitas is located roughly 20 minutes north of San Jose, California.

Interestingly, Apple’s multi-year lease of the facility, for which the tech-giant is expected to pay 90 cents per square-foot/month, was reportedly so notable that it reduced the availability of leasable warehouse space in the area from 1.5 percent to just 0.7, according to the publication, which cites other tech firms like Google and Micron who’ve also been snapping up industrial space in the area.

What Could Apple Be Doing?

What’s even more interesting, is that this wouldn’t be the first time Apple has gone out and leased massive amounts of real estate. But, unlike those previous instances, in which reports ultimately revealed what the leased facilities were being used for, it’s not clear (as of yet) what the company could be using this massive swath of space for.

As the developer mentioned, the unit Apple leased was designed specifically for industrial, R&D, or manufacturing purposes — but could it be that Apple is actually planning to manufacture something there?  

For a number of logistical and geopolitical reasons, probably not a product like iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch, at least. But, given the facility’s size and single-story arrangement, it’s very possible that Apple could have rented the space to serve as a home base for the next leg of Project Titan — the company’s self-driving Apple Car endeavor.

According to the latest rumors, Project Titan is supposedly heating up behind closed doors as Apple continues to investigate a range of automobile technologies. And with renowned analyst Ming-Chi Kuo recently speculating in a research note that Apple is in fact developing a self-branded car for release within the 2023-2025 timeframe, it’s looking even more likely that might be the case.

Of course, unless or until additional reports surface, there’s really no way of knowing what the company will officially use its massive new space for — and especially since Apple seems to be up to much these days, between Apple Car, Apple Glass, foldable iPhones and creating quality original TV content for iOS users — it’s sort of hard to even fathom.