Foxconn, the world’s largest tech manufacturer, has pulled out from a vaunted $19.5B joint venture to build a semiconductor plant in India.
Foxconn is kinda a big deal:
- 📱 It makes products for giants like Apple, Microsoft and IBM
- 🧑🏭 It employs three quarters of a million folks worldwide, and
- 💰 And it rakes in almost a quarter trillion in revenues each year.
The Taiwanese company didn’t say why the deal fell through, but reports suggest it’s related to delays in Indian government incentives and approvals.
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Intrigue’s take: Prime Minister Modi has been looking to boost this sector for a decade, and he seemed to have the wind at his back: Foxconn was just one of many spooked firms looking at India as a way to diversify away from China.
So just as this deal’s announcement was a real head-turning moment for India last year, its cancellation will now turn heads too.
Also worth noting:
- Prime Minister Modi launched his ‘Make in India’ initiative in 2014, aimed at boosting Indian manufacturing.
- Foxconn’s plant was slated for possible construction in Gujarat, India’s manufacturing hub and Prime Minister Modi’s home state.
- Foxconn already has (lower tech) factories in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.