Bengaluru, NFAPost: Taiwanese electronics giant Foxconn has bought a huge tract of land on the outskirts of Bengaluru, the key Apple supplier said in a filing on Tuesday as it looks to diversify production away from China.
In a statement to the London Stock Exchange, the company stated that 1.2 million-square-metre (13 million-square-foot) land is acquired at Devanahalli, near the Bengaluru airport. Foxconn subsidiary Foxconn Hon Hai Technology India Mega Development will pay Rs 300 crore ($37 million) for the site.
Known as Hon Hai Precision Industry, Foxconn is the world’s biggest contract electronics manufacturer and a principal assembler of Apple iPhones.
Both companies are seeking to diversify away from China, where much of their manufacturing is based, after strict Covid policies in recent years and ongoing diplomatic tensions with the United States hurt production.
Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj S Bommai said in March that Apple would “soon” manufacture iPhones at a new plant in the state, creating “about 100,000 jobs”.
Foxconn chairman Young Liu visited the state then to “deepen partnerships… and seek cooperation in new areas such as semiconductor development and electric vehicles”, he said in a statement.
He also met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who said the pair’s “discussions covered various topics aimed at enhancing India’s tech and innovation eco-system”.
Foxconn has manufactured Apple handsets in India since 2019 at its plant in Tamil Nadu. Two other Taiwanese suppliers, Wistron and Pegatron, also manufacture and assemble Apple devices in India.
Apple has been making its own push into India and chief executive Tim Cook last month opened its first two retail stores in the world’s most populous country.
The California-based firm is betting big on the nation of 1.4 billion people — home to the second-highest number of smartphone users in the world, after China.
The world’s biggest company in terms of market value is also expanding its manufacturing footprint in India.
Apple said last September it would manufacture its latest iPhone 14 in India, just weeks after launching the flagship model.
The country last year accounted for seven percent of Apple’s iPhone production, according to Bloomberg, lagging behind the United States, China, Japan and other countries.
