Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath's latest book pick: 9/10 rating for 'Apple In China'

Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath has recommended Apple in China by journalist Patrick McGee, giving the book a 9/10 rating. He praised its account of how China built its manufacturing strength through investment, learning and industrial ecosystems.

In a post on Friday, Kamath summed up the book’s central takeaway in a few words. “Rating 9/10…Allow outsiders in, let them invest, learn, climb up the value chain, outcompete, replace, export. (Ecosystem ecosystem ecosystem). Easy read, very story book like.”

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How Apple Became Central To China’s Rise

Published in May 2025, Apple in China traces how Apple’s emergence as the world’s most valuable technology company became closely linked with China’s transformation into a global manufacturing and technology powerhouse.

Drawing on more than 200 interviews with former Apple executives, engineers, and supply chain insiders, McGee argues that Apple’s investments in China extended well beyond assembling iPhones.

According to the book, the company transferred manufacturing expertise, engineering know-how, and supply-chain practices that helped build one of the world’s most sophisticated electronics manufacturing ecosystems.

The book also contends that the relationship created deep interdependence: Apple relied on China’s manufacturing capabilities, while China leveraged the knowledge and expertise to accelerate its ambitions of becoming a global technology leader.

McGee describes the partnership as one of the defining business and geopolitical stories of the 21st century.

Patrick McGee is a Canadian journalist who specialises in technology, global supply chains and geopolitics. He spent a decade at the Financial Times, reporting from Hong Kong, Germany, and California.

From 2019 to 2023, McGee served as the FT’s principal Apple correspondent before taking a sabbatical to research and write Apple in China.