Apple’s key contractor is moving ahead with a $1.5bn component plant near Chennai, further expanding the iPhone-maker’s supply chain in India even as Donald Trump demands it return manufacturing to the US.
Foxconn, which has assembled Apple’s devices for years, is set to build a display module facility in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, two government officials told the Financial Times. The plant would help the Taiwanese company supply Apple, its main customer.
The move represents the US tech giant’s latest tilt towards India and away from China — which remains its biggest manufacturing base by far. The shift had already started before the Covid-19 pandemic, which then frayed industrial supply chains and prompted the US iPhone maker to diversify to other countries.