A bone to Trump, and a boon to China: Foxconn deepens R&D in China – China’s latest business and technology news

East Asia’s biggest exporter, the Taiwan-based Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. — better known by its trade name, Foxconn — continues to make massive investments in China to design and build smartphones and other devices. In July this year, the company threw a bone to the Trump administration by announcing a $10 billion factory in Wisconsin that may create up to 50,000 jobs, but that is just a small slice of the manufacturing giant’s estimated payroll of 1 million workers.

Foxconn’s real investment focus is in China, where the South China Morning Post reports that it is building the “world’s biggest smartphone assembly hub,” along with research centers for the:

• Development of the back-end modules for mobile devices;
• Design of large-format high-definition televisions; and
• Extensive research and development on 5G cellular technology.

The $5.7 billion expansion will add on to an already-existing facility in Nanjing, just one of many known for producing much of the world’s smartphone supply — not just for Apple, but for its direct competitors Xiaomi and Huawei, too. Nikkei Asian Review notes that Foxconn also “embarked on building a roughly $9 billion display plant in Guangzhou” in February of this year.

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