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Foxconn had a nearly $20 billion deal to build India’s first semiconductor foundry, but now it’s abandoning the project.
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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
iPhone assembler Foxconn is dropping out of a $19.5 billion deal with a major Indian company to build a semiconductor factory in the country, according to Reuters. The canceled Foxconn deal was part of a joint venture with the large oil and metal corporation Vedanta.
Foxconn provided a vague explanation as to why it ended its plans to build a semiconductor facility in the country. “Foxconn has determined it will not move forward on the joint venture with Vedanta,” reads a company statement to Reuters. Foxconn says the deal was ended mutually. Vedanta has “lined up other partners” to set up the foundry, the company said in a statement.
The Foxconn-Vedanta fallout is a blow to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s economic growth efforts for the country and for his home state of Gujarat, where the factory was planned. Foxconn is still operating other facilities in the country, including one in Sriperumbudur, where it’s building iPhone 14 models.
Device makers like Apple have been working with more supply partners to diversify manufacturing outside mainland China as political and economic uncertainties mount. India, in particular, is a market Apple has been trying to break into; the company opened its first Indian retail stores in Mumbai and New Delhi starting in April.
Foxconn Vedanta deal is only its latest to go south. As Wisconsin has learned the hard way, throwing $4 billion in incentives at Foxconn is not enough to get the company to build a factory. And it’s currently being sued in the US by ailing EV automaker Lordstown Motors due to alleged “fraud and willful and consistent failure to live up to its commercial and financial commitments.”