Hon Hai Group (鴻海集團), the world’s largest contract-manufacturer of electronics, suspended a security official at one of its subsidiaries after the death of an employee who lost a prototype of an Apple iPhone.
The case of the security official, identified only by the surname “Gu,” has been turned over to Chinese authorities, Hon Hai said in a statement, without providing details.
Sun Danyong (孫丹勇), an employee at Hon Hai unit Foxconn International Holdings Ltd (富士康國際), jumped off a dormitory at a factory in Shenzhen after one of the 16 iPhone prototypes he was assigned to mail on July 10 went missing, said a Hon Hai official, who asked not to be identified.
Hon Hai is unaware of the reasons behind Sun’s suicide, the Taipei-based company’s statement said. Sun, 25, killed himself on July 16 after being investigated by company officials for the disappearance of an iPhone sample, the China Daily reported yesterday.
Foxconn didn’t authorize any person or department to violate the law, according to the statement. Hon Hai said it offered condolences to Sun’s family.
“Sun’s suicide, no matter what the reason, to a certain extent shows that Foxconn’s internal management is inadequate,” the statement said.
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the group’s flagship unit and Taiwan’s biggest manufacturer by sales, owns 72 percent of Foxconn International Holdings, the world’s biggest contract-maker of mobile phones.
APPLE
Apple Inc offered its condolences yesterday as the company waits for the results of an investigation.
“We are saddened by the tragic loss of this young employee, and we are awaiting results of the investigations into his death,” said Jill Tan (陳玉麗), an Apple spokeswoman in Hong Kong. “We require our suppliers to treat all workers with dignity and respect.”
There is tremendous pressure on employees dealing with Apple’s new products to maintain a high-level secrecy over the gadgets, traditionally launched amid great suspense and marketing buzz.
Apple is also a constant target of prying journalists, rabidly faithful customers and competitors who make great efforts to try to steal a peek at its latest gadgets.
Sun’s friends said company security guards searched Sun’s apartment, detained him and beat him, the state-run Southern Metropolis Daily reported.
GU SPEAKS
The paper quoted Gu as saying he never hit Sun. The security official reportedly said that after three security personnel searched Sun’s apartment and did not find the phone, the employee was ordered to go to Gu’s office on July 15.
The security chief said he didn’t think Sun was being truthful about the phone, the paper reported.
“I got a bit agitated. I pointed my finger at him and said that he was trying to shift the blame,” Gu was quoted as saying.
“I was a little angry and I pulled his right shoulder once to get him to tell me what happened. It [the beating] couldn’t have happened,” the paper reported Gu as saying.
Foxconn executive Li Jinming (李金明) said in a statement that Sun’s death showed that the company needed to do a better job helping its employees with psychological pressures.
“Sun Danyong graduated from a good school. He joined the company in 2008. He had an extremely bright future. The group and I feel deep pain and regret when a young person dies like this,” Li said.
Also See: Apple quarterly profit defies forecasts
Also See: [TECHNOLOGY] iPhone’s marijuana service a must-have in California
WASHINGTON’S INCENTIVES: The CHIPS Act set aside US$39 billion in direct grants to persuade the world’s top semiconductor companies to make chips on US soil The US plans to award more than US$6 billion to Samsung Electronics Co, helping the chipmaker expand beyond a project in Texas it has already announced, people familiar with the matter said. The money from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act would be one of several major awards that the US Department of Commerce is expected to announce in the coming weeks, including a grant of more than US$5 billion to Samsung’s rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), people familiar with the plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcements. The federal funding for
HIGH DEMAND: The firm has strong capabilities of providing key components including liquid cooling technology needed for AI servers, chairman Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday revised its revenue outlook for this year to “significant” growth from a “neutral” view forecast five months ago, due to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers from cloud service providers. Hon Hai, a major assembler of iPhones that is also known as Foxconn, expects AI server revenues to soar more than 40 percent annually this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told investors. The robust growth would uplift revenue contribution from AI servers to 40 percent of the company’s overall server revenue this year, from 30 percent last year, Liu said. In the three-year period
LONG HAUL: Largan Energy Materials’ TNO-based lithium-ion batteries are expected to charge in five minutes and last about 20 years, far surpassing conventional technology Largan Precision Co (大立光) has formed a joint venture with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) to produce fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, mobile electronics and electric storage units, the camera lens supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones said yesterday. Largan Energy Materials Co (萬溢能源材料), established in January, is developing high-energy, fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries using titanium niobium oxide (TNO) anodes, it said. TNO-based batteries can be fully charged in five minutes and have a lifespan of 20 years, a major advantage over the two to four hours of charging time needed for conventional graphite-anode-based batteries, Largan said in a
Taiwan is one of the first countries to benefit from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, but because that is largely down to a single company it also represents a risk, former Google Taiwan managing director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰) said at an AI forum in Taipei yesterday. Speaking at the forum on how generative AI can generate possibilities for all walks of life, Chien said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) — currently among the world’s 10 most-valuable companies due to continued optimism about AI — ensures Taiwan is one of the economies to benefit most from AI. “This is because AI is