Apple Supplier Foxconn Planning $10 Billion USD Display Plant in American Heartland

Taiwanese iPhone assembler Foxconn Technology Group is looking at seven states in the American heartland to invest $10 billion USD or more to manufacture flat-panel screens and related equipment, reads a report from Reuters.

The Taiwan-based firm has been eyeing U.S. investments for some time and its CEO had previously said the company hoped to spend over $7 billion to set up a display-making plant in the country — which has no panel-making industry but is the No.2 market for televisions.

“Over the years, manufacturing of consumer goods has shifted out of the U.S.,” Terry Gou, the chairman of the company formally known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., told reporters after the company’s annual shareholders meeting Thursday. “We will bring our advanced technology there to revive American manufacturing.”

Foxconn is considering investing in six projects and is looking at seven states as candidates — Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin — said Tim Chen, the company’s corporate vice president.

“This time we go to America, it’s not just to build a factory, but to move our entire supply chain there,” Gou told shareholders, without providing specific details.

President Donald Trump has called for firms to build more products in the United States. He has made several announcements since his election in November about U.S. investments by both foreign and domestic manufacturers, building on his campaign focus on preserving and creating American jobs.

Gou promised to ramp up investment in the U.S., possibly helping with a rust-belt economic revival. Dubbed “Flying Eagle,” Foxconn’s plan to build a U.S. facility could create tens of thousands of American jobs during Trump’s first year in office.