Apple supplier Foxconn clinches onto India as it slowly departs China

Apple Inc’s largest supplier Foxconn is rapidly expanding its presence in India by investing in locations for its manufacturing facilities. This comes amid repeated signals from the Taiwanese giant to move its operations out of China. Foxconn already has an iPhone factory in Tamil Nadu where it employs 40,000 people.

Fresh investments by Foxconn in India

Karnataka facility: Foxconn will invest about Rs 5,000 crore to set up iPhone component and semiconductor manufacturing units in Karnataka. The investment is expected to generate over 12,000 jobs.

Foxconn also won an order to make AirPods for Apple and plans to build a factory in India to produce the wireless earphones, two people with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters in March.

On Wednesday, Foxconn said that it will tie up with Applied Materials for a $250 million project to make chip-making tools in Karnataka, creating jobs for around 1,000 people.

Tamil Nadu facility: Foxconn has signed a deal with the Tamil Nadu government to invest Rs 1,600 crore rupees ($194 million) in a new electronic components manufacturing facility that will create 6,000 jobs.

Gujarat: Even though Foxconn backed out of the Rs 19,500 crore deal with Vedanta, the Taiwanese company is in talks with the government of Gujarat over a semiconductor facility.

Electric vehicles: In 2021, Foxconn had launched Mobility in Harmony (MIH) Consortium that works on developing platforms for EVs. While talking to Reuters recently, its CEO, Jack Cheng, said, "You build where the potential market is...In India or Southeast Asia, you have a huge volume opportunity right now." He even called India a potential "emerging power for the next generation" in the EV sector.

He further added, "If this is a Foxconn plant (in India), fantastic, it's the mother company, we put it into the Foxconn plant. If this is a local India plant and it's even more competitive, give it to the India plant." He expects India to be crucial to MIH's longer-term growth.

(With Reuters inputs)