Foxxcon chairman bets on Telangana, says working with state will double company's revenue

Foxconn recently announced multiple investment plans in India, with scaling up of workforce in its Tamil Nadu plant, and a JV with Vedanta in Gujarat for a semiconductor and display manufacturing facility.

Hailing the 'speed of development' in Telangana, Foxconn's Chairman Young Liu on March 2 said that working with the State will enable him to double the contract electronics maker's revenue to $400 bn in the next four years.

While speaking at inauguration of T-Works, a prototyping centre launched by the Telangana government, Liu said, "Telangana gave me this confidence, that working in the State, I will, very likely, double the revenue of Foxconn".

Apple's iPhone supplier Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, reported unaudited revenue of $215.84 billion in 2022.

Earlier on March 2, Telangana government's Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and Liu signed an expression of interest to invest in Telangana, with the aim of creating 1 lakh jobs in the state.

"I have to emphasise that without speed it (doubling revenue) is not possible. But with Telangana's speed, it is very possible," Liu said.

"I would like to take this opportunity to encourage all of you that with the effort that government has put into the State; with all this effort, try to explore this investment, and do it in a speedy way, and I believe you can make it," he said.

The Foxconn chairman said that he was amazed to see the amount of development that was done in last seven years in Telangana, since the formation of the state.

He equated the 'speed of development' with the necessity of speed in high technology industry. "Speed is very critical for the hitech industry. With speed you can do almost everything."

During the event, the State's IT and Industries Minister KT Rama Rao wooed Liu for investing in Telangana and said, "Taiwan as a country amazes me. I am just hopeful what you have done in Shenzen, what you have done in China, lets do that in Hyderabad. Let's make Hyderabad the Shenzen of India."

These meetings and investment come at a time when the government has said that it would approve two applications to start building electronics chip manufacturing plants in the country.

Last year, Foxconn, announced that it acquired 4.08 million shares in Foxconn Hon Hai Technology India Mega Development Private Limited for $500 million. With the investment, Taiwan-based Foxconn, which is the world's largest contract electronics maker, plans to take the workforce at its plant in Tamil Nadu to 70,000 by adding 53,000 more workers over the next two years.

Apart from that, a joint venture between Indian conglomerate Vedanta and  Foxconn has picked the Dholera Special Investment Region near Ahmedabad in Gujarat for setting up a semiconductor and display manufacturing facility.