Foxconn mum on $30 billion investment claim
MADISON, Wis. — Foxconn Technology Group is not saying whether it plans to invest $30 billion in the United States, as President Donald Trump claimed the company’s leader told him “off the record.”
Trump announced to a group of small-business leaders at the White House on Tuesday that Foxconn CEO Terry Gou told him privately that the Taiwanese electronics manufacturer was going to invest $30 billion in the U.S.
The company signed a deal with Wisconsin last week to build a $10 billion display panel manufacturing plant and Trump did not specify where the additional spending would be.
Foxconn reiterated in a statement Wednesday that the Wisconsin plant “will be the first of a series of facilities we will be building in several states.” It did not address Trump’s statement about the total investment amount or Trump’s claims that Gou told it to him in confidence.
“We have not yet announced our investment plans for other sites,” Foxconn said in the statement. “We will provide an update as soon as we have finalized those plans.”
Gou previously said that Foxconn was considering locating in seven states before Trump announced last week that a massive liquid crystal display monitors plant would be going to Wisconsin.
Other states that Foxconn said it was looking at were Texas, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Foxconn is the world’s largest contract maker of electronics, with factories across mainland China. It’s best known for making iPhones and other Apple devices but its long list of customers includes Sony Corp., Dell and BlackBerry.
The new plant in Wisconsin, which is scheduled to open in 2020 with 3,000 employees, will construct liquid crystal display monitors used in televisions and computers.
It would bring Foxconn closer to its biggest market and be the first LCD monitor factory located outside of Asia.
The Wisconsin Legislature is considering a $3 billion incentive package that must be passed by the end of September as part of the deal with Foxconn. A public hearing on the proposal was scheduled for Thursday, just six days after a draft of the plan was released and eight days after news of the state’s deal with Foxconn broke.
Mark Pocan, a Democratic congressman who represents a swath of south-central Wisconsin that includes Madison, questioned during a news conference Wednesday how many jobs will actually materialize and how much those workers will really be paid. He added that he’s worried Foxconn might abandon its plans if Trump fails to follow through on his proposal to raise import tariffs.