Apple partner Foxconn Technology Group is planning to invest $700 million on a new plant in India to boost local production, sources familiar with the matter revealed. This comes as the manufacturer seeks to shift its operations away from China as tensions with the United States continue to build.
Foxconn, which is largely known for its flagship unit Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., has located a 300-acre site close to the airport in Bengaluru, the capital of the southern Indian state of Karnataka. Here, the Thai company plans to assemble iPhone parts while potentially also assembling Apple handsets. Foxconn may also look to manufacture parts for its electric vehicle business at the site.
The new plant is expected to generate 100,000 jobs, marking the company’s largest single investment in India to date. By shifting towards India, Foxconn is following the trend of Chinese-based suppliers of U.S. brands moving their factories out of China and into other countries such as India and Vietnam. This pattern, caused by Chinese-U.S. tensions, could see China lose its status as the world’s largest producer of consumer electronics.
Currently, Foxconn’s complex in the Chinese city of Zhengzhou employs over 200,000 people.
