The new facility of Foxconn’s subsidiary Foxconn Industrial Internet (FII) will be built in the Kancheepuram district near Tamil Nadu’s capital Chennai.
Taiwanese multinational electronics manufacturer and major supplier of Apple products Foxconn has reportedly signed a deal with the government of Tamil Nadu to invest Rs 16 billion ($194 million) for a new electronic component manufacturing facility in the state. The investment will create 6,000 jobs in the Southern Indian state, media outlet Reuters reported on Monday.
The Kancheepuram district near Tamil Nadu’s capital Chennai will get the new facility of the company’s subsidiary Foxconn Industrial Internet (FII), the report citing unnamed government sources noted. This facility will reportedly be separate from the company’s campus near Chennai where Foxconn assembles iPhones.
About FII, it specializes in providing professional design and manufacturing services for communication network equipment, cloud service equipment, precision tools, and industrial robots. These products find applications in smartphones, broadband and wireless networks, and various other infrastructure projects. Meanwhile, there is no official confirmation from the Taiwanese company about its latest investment yet.
Foxconn Chairman Young Liu, who has been in India to attend the semiconductor conference conducted by the federal government, said that the company currently employs about 40,000 workers in its facility near Chennai. The company plans to quadruple the workforce in Tamil Nadu by late 2024.
Apart from Tamil Nadu, Foxconn has made significant investment commitments in other Indian states, including Karnataka, and Telangana. The investments follow the Taiwanese company’s aim of expanding its manufacturing capabilities and supporting India’s push to become a manufacturing and semiconductor hub.
In May, Telangana’s IT Minister K. T. Rama Rao said Foxconn will invest $500 million in the state and that the investment will create 25,000 direct jobs in its first phase. In February, Chief Minister of Karnataka Basavaraj S Bommai said that the state is in talks with the company over investment plans. Foxconn was reported to have proposed an investment of Rs 8,800 crore to build a manufacturing plant, which will be a supplementary facility to its existing assembly unit in Karnataka. The plant is expected to create more than 14,000 jobs in the area.
Meanwhile, the Taiwanese tech major pulled out from a joint venture with India’s metals-to-oil conglomerate Vedanta to set up semiconductor and display production plants in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The investment was valued at $19.5 billion. Despite Foxconn’s withdrawal, Vedanta later announced to enter the semiconductor space with the backing of other partners. Foxconn, on the other hand, stated that it remains committed to investing in India and intends to apply to access incentives under the country’s semiconductor manufacturing policy.
