Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the world’s largest contract electronics maker, is considering spending more than US$7 billion to build a flat-panel plant in the US in a joint project with Sharp Corp, company chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) said.
“The US is the second-largest TV market in the world and yet it does not have a panel industry... It is a good idea to build a display facility there,” Gou told reporters on the sidelines of the company’s annual party at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Hall on Sunday.
It was the first time Gou publicly confirmed an investment plan in the US since US President Donald Trump’s election.
Gou said he has been in discussions with Hon Hai vice president and Sharp president Tai Jeng-wu (戴正吳) to build a 10th-generation display plant in the US as part of the company’s efforts to expand Sharp’s global presence and market share.
“I have also discussed with major clients, such as Apple [Inc], about entering the US and they showed willingness to invest together, as they need the [panels] as well,” Gou said.
Gou said the investment could create as many as 50,000 jobs, but said he has to wait and see the US government’s tax policies and investment incentives, such as cheaper land and electricity rates.
In addition to the planned investment, Gou said the company plans to build a new molding plant in the US, possibly in Pennsylvania.
Gou said he had discussions with Pennsylvania state officials, adding that a representative from the state’s trade office attended Sunday’s party.
“Pennsylvania has been very active... I urge other states to act more quickly or I will sign a contract with Pennsylvania,” Gou said.
Gou said a Hon Hai-controlled interactive display start-up called Smart Technologies might move its headquarters from Canada to the US, as Trump has expressed his intention to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.
‘ROUTINE QUESTION’
When asked if Beijing has pressured Hon Hai regarding its investment plans in the US, Gou said: “China has never pressured us or has been concerned about it.”
Local governments in China asked if Hon Hai has plans to increase investments in that nation this year, which is a routine question they ask at the end of every year, Gou said.
Hon Hai’s combined revenue fell 2.81 percent annually to NT$4.35 trillion (US$138.4 billion) last year, which was its first annual decline since the company’s listing on the stock market in 1991, according to the firm’s filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
In an opening speech at Sunday’s party, Gou apologized to employees and investors, saying that he took full responsibility for the company’s first-ever decline in revenue.
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