Foxconn makes U-turn on $10bn Wisconsin factory after call with Trump

Taiwanese tech giant Foxconn Technology said Friday it would build a heavily subsidized $10bn factory in Wisconsin days after the company appeared to be backing away from those plans.

‘It’s a huge subsidy’: the $4.8bn gamble to lure Foxconn to America

Read more

After speaking with Donald Trump, Terry Gou, the Taiwanese company’s chairman, said Foxconn would now move “forward with our planned construction of a Gen 6 fab facility”, which is a type of plant that produces liquid crystal displays.

His comments contradict an interview given to Reuters earlier this week in which Foxconn executives said they were reconsidering plans to make advanced liquid crystal display panels at the Wisconsin campus.

The 20m sq ft campus marked the largest investment for a brand new location by a foreign-based company in US history when it was announced at a White House ceremony in 2017. It was praised by Trump as proof of his ability to revive American manufacturing. The apparent reversal was seized upon by Democrats in Congress this week.

Sign up for the US morning briefing

Trump tweeted Friday: “Great news on Foxconn in Wisconsin after my conversation with Terry Gou!”

Louis Woo, special assistant to Gou, told Reuters on Wednesday that Foxconn wants to create a “technology hub” in Wisconsin that would largely consist of research facilities. “In Wisconsin we’re not building a factory,” Woo said.

Foxconn said that global market conditions had “necessitated the adjustment of plans for all projects, including Wisconsin”.

The company’s statement Friday reiterated that the “campus will serve both as an advanced manufacturing facility as well as a hub of high technology innovation for the region”.

Foxconn’s statement did not reiterate its commitment to create 13,000 jobs as it did on Wednesday. The company has reportedly now hired less than a 1,000 people. Foxconn initially expected to employ about 5,200 people by the end of 2020.

The company is receiving a potential $4.8bn in subsidies for the site and the deal has proved highly controversial in Wisconsin. Republican governor Scott Walker broke ground at the site but lost his seat to Democrat Tony Evers in the midterms.

On Friday Evers said he believed Foxconn was committed to Wisconsin but said the company needed to do a better job of communicating its intentions. There is “no limit to skepticism” if the company’s messaging isn’t coherent, said Evers.