Is Foxconn planning for a $700 Million India plant in Bengaluru?

Underscoring a shift of manufacturing away from China as Washington-Beijing tensions grow, Taiwanese company Foxconn Technology Group plans to invest about $700 million on a new plant in India to ramp up local production. The plant to make iPhone parts will be built on a 300-acre site close to the airport in Bengaluru. The factory may also assemble Apple’s handsets while it may also be used to produce some parts for its nascent EV business.

The investment is one of Foxconn’s biggest single outlays to date in India and underscores how China is fast losing its status as the world’s largest producer of consumer electronics. Apple and other US brands are leaning on their Chinese-based suppliers to explore alternative locations such as India and Vietnam. It’s a rethink of the global supply chain that’s accelerated during the pandemic.

The new production site in India is expected to create about 100,000 jobs, the people familiar with the matter said. The company’s sprawling iPhone assembly complex in the Chinese city of Zhengzhou employs some 200,000 at the moment, although that number surges during peak production season.

Young Liu, the chairman of Foxconn who is currently touring India and has also met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has committed to another manufacturing project in the neighboring Telangana state.

India has offered financial incentives to Apple suppliers such as Foxconn, which began making the latest generation of iPhones at a site in Tamil Nadu last year. Smaller rivals Wistron Corp. and Pegatron Corp. have also ramped up in India, while suppliers such as Jabil Inc. have begun making components for AirPods locally.