Source: Thomas Peter | Reuters
Foxconn, one of Apple’s largest suppliers and a major manufacturer of iPhone components, will invest about $700 million to build a new plant in India’s Karnataka state, Bloomberg reported Friday. The report comes as U.S. companies continue to reevaluate their reliance on China in the wake of mounting tension between the U.S. and the Chinese government.
Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, said Foxconn will build an iPhone parts plant on a 300-acre site near Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport. Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore, is the capital of Karnataka state, which lies on the southwestern coast of India and has one of the highest per-capita GDP levels of any Indian state.
Government officials confirmed Bloomberg’s reporting on Friday, writing that the new plant would create 100,000 jobs. The effort will be one of the largest investments by Foxconn in India, Bloomberg reported.
Bengaluru in particular is considered one of the leading engineering and technology hubs in India.
Foxconn and technology suppliers more broadly have looked to diversify beyond China, which has been a traditional hub for manufacturing, in the wake of devastating Covid lockdowns and manufacturing slowdowns. Those lockdowns prompted widespread national dissent, and videos of Foxconn employees fleeing the company’s iPhone manufacturing facility spread widely on Western social media.
India and Vietnam have emerged as top contenders to supplant China’s dominance in the manufacturing and supply space. CNBC has previously reported on comments from Indian government officials which claimed that Apple sought to ramp up production in India to account for 25% of their total output. Foxconn already maintains a presence in India through a Chennai-proximate factory in eastern India.