Apple Inc. plans to move some of its MacBook production opperations to Vietnam for the first time in May next year, adding one more to the list of the tech giant’s products shifted to the country, according to Nikkei Asia.

Apple has tapped its top supplier, Taiwan’s Foxconn, to start making MacBooks in the Southeast Asian nation, Nikkei Asia reported on Tuesday, citing sources briefed on the matter.

“After MacBook production shifts, all of Apple’s flagship products basically will have one more production location beyond China ... iPhones in India and MacBooks, the Apple Watch, and iPads in Vietnam,” one person with direct knowledge of the matter told Nikkei Asia. 

“What Apple wants now is an ‘out of China’ option for at least part of production for all of its products.”

Apple has not commented on the Nikkei Asia report.

The company has been working on plans to move some MacBook manufacturing to Vietnam for nearly two years and has set up a test production line in the country, the Japanese news outlet reported earlier. 

Apple makes between 20 million and 24 million MacBooks annually, with production spread between bases in the Chinese cities of Chengdu, Sichuan Province, and Shanghai.

Vietnam will make 65 percent of Apple’s wireless AirPods by 2025 as the U.S. tech giant continues to shift its production away from China, JP Morgan analysts forecast.

The country will also reportedly account for 20 percent of iPad and Apple Watch output and five percent of MacBook output, according to the financial service provider.

Foxconn in August leased 50.5 hectares of land in northern Bac Giang Province, just 50 kilometers from Hanoi, and plans to build a $300-million factory there, employing 30,000 workers.

The shift to Vietnam comes amid not only rising geopolitical tensions but also production disruptions caused by China’s zero-COVID policies and uncertainty from their sudden loosening in recent weeks.

“Vietnam is not the only place that multinationals are looking to diversify out of China, but Vietnam is probably the most successful,” Greg Poling, director of the Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Al Jazeera in October.

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