Foxconn In Talks for Saudi Arabian Plant
$9 billion facility to make microchips, electric-vehicle parts while promised plant for Wisconsin yet to happen.
Foxconn is in talks with Saudi Arabia about building a “$9 billion multipurpose facility that could make microchips, electric-vehicle components and other electronics like displays,” according to a report by the Wall Street Journal. The size of the project is very close to the $10 billion plant the Taiwanese company promised to build in Wisconsin back in July 2017, more than four-and-a-half years ago. It is yet another sign the company has no intention of building anything close to the “8th wonder of the world” that then-President Donald Trump touted, and which then-Governor Scott Walker promised would transform Wisconsin’s economy.
“The Saudi government is reviewing an offer from the company, formally known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., to build a dual-line foundry for surface-mount technology and wafer fabrication in Neom, a tech-focused city-state the kingdom is developing in the desert,” sources told the publication “Discussions over the project started last year.”
The project comes on the heels of Foxconn’s announcement, in November, that it would be buying the 6.2-million-square-foot, former General Motors plant in Lordstown, Ohio from struggling EV startup Lordstown Motors. Foxconn said it also agreed to contract manufacture Lordstown Motors’ electric pickup truck, the Endurance.
Prior to this Foxconn had discussed the possibility of manufacturing electric vehicles or components at the massive campus in Mount Pleasant, WI. that state and local officials have spent some $750 million on roads and infrastructure to build out, a figure that could rise to $1.34 billion if local officials in Mount Pleasant and Racine County complete all the work they had promised. But the Lordstown facility, since it was already built to manufacture cars, probably involved less investment for Foxconn than building anew in Mount Pleasant.
Meanwhile Foxconn has yet to manufacture anything there, much less deliver on its promised $10 billion capital investment, creating 13,000 jobs on a manufacturing campus of 20 million square feet.
After quickly downscaling and eventually abandoning its original plan to create a 10.5 LCD fabrication facility, the company has floated plan after plan to manufacture something in Mount Pleasant, none of which have panned out. Finally, in April 2021, it agreed to a scaled-down contract with the state that cuts the potential state tax credit from $2.85 billion to $80 million and cuts Foxconn’s hiring and investment targets to just 1,454 workers and $672 million invested. There has been little progress so far on realizing these goals.
More about the Foxconn Facility
- Foxconn Will Get State Subsidy For 2022 - Joe Schulz - Dec 11th, 2023
- Mount Pleasant Approves Microsoft Deal on Foxconn Land - Evan Casey - Nov 28th, 2023
- Mount Pleasant Deal With Microsoft Has No Public Subsidies - Evan Casey - Nov 14th, 2023
- Microsoft, State Announce Massive Data Center Expansion, Land Purchase - Joe Schulz - Nov 11th, 2023
- Gov. Evers Announces Microsoft Makes Major Investment in Wisconsin - Gov. Tony Evers - Nov 10th, 2023
- State Can’t Regulate We Energies $100 Million Project for Microsoft - Joe Schulz - Sep 20th, 2023
- Foxconn Selling Green Bay, Eau Claire ‘Centers’ - Joe Schulz - Aug 16th, 2023
- Murphy’s Law: Foxconn Deal Is Still Costing Taxpayers - Bruce Murphy - Jul 6th, 2023
- Microsoft Will Pay $50 Million For Mount Pleasant Data Center Site - Evan Casey - Apr 20th, 2023
- Microsoft Data Center Proposed for Foxconn Land - Evan Casey - Mar 29th, 2023
Read more about Foxconn Facility here
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Oh yeah we welcome a company owned by a government that last week executed 81 people? And what Putin inc. is next? This is ludicrous! Recognizing the need for employment opportunities still should cause some evaluation of the source of the capital investments? Walker et al has placed an economic noose around the throat of Kenosha and pleasant prairie but there must be a more humane alternative!