Taipei, May 9 (CNA) Taiwan-based manufacturing giant Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. said Thursday it is “continuing to grow” in Wisconsin, highlighting its approximately US$1 billion investment and more than 1,000 employees in the US state.
Despite changes in market demand and other challenges, Hon Hai, trading as Foxconn internationally, is expanding in Wisconsin, the company said in a statement following criticism by US President Joe Biden leveled at his predecessor Donald Trump for the failure to build a new Foxconn facility in the state’s Racine County.
Microsoft announced plans on Wednesday (US time) to build a US$3.3 billion artificial intelligence (AI) data center in the county on the land once earmarked for Hon Hai to construct an LCD screen manufacturing center.
Hon Hai said in 2018 it would invest US$10 billion at the site and employ 13,000 workers, but those plans never came to fruition.
While championing the Microsoft investment along with Microsoft President Brad Smith, Biden repeatedly criticized Trump for his “failed promises” about Foxconn.
Hon Hai said in the statement Thursday that Foxconn Wisconsin is a key data server manufacturing site with over 1,000 employees and a global market share of approximately 40 percent.
Employment at Foxconn Wisconsin has risen by at least 42 percent over the past three years, it said.
“We have been Racine County’s largest taxpayer in recent years,” the company said, adding that it “supports expansion of technology and innovation in the state.”
Hon Hai has facilities in 205 locations across 24 countries, according to the statement.
Hon Hai’s investment plans in Wisconsin have undergone several changes, with the investment scale and focus adjusted several times. It originally planned to invest in an advanced panel factory but has now decided to switch to manufacturing servers, and network communication and cloud computing equipment.
An industry expert familiar with Hon Hai’s investment in the US said that changing industrial conditions and patterns, the US-China technology war, the election of the governor of Wisconsin, and policy changes such as subsidy levels, as well as recruitment challenges, have suggested Hon Hai to scale back his investment project.
(By Chung Jung-feng and Evelyn Kao)
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