Weeks after Foxconn chairman Young Liu's visit to India, India's southern state Karnataka approved 18 projects, including Foxconn's planned mobile phone manufacturing facility.
According to PTI and Deccan Herald, a high-level clearance committee under the government of Karnataka approved 18 projects with INR753.93 billion (US$9.14 billion), which will generate 77,606 jobs in the state, with Foxconn's INR80 billion project expected to add 50,000 jobs.
According to details accessed by Deccan Herald, Foxconn's facility, which covers 300 acres in the Information Technology Investment Region near the towns of Doddaballapur and Devanahalli, will have an annual production capacity of 100,000 mobile phones by the end of 2025 before reaching 20 million by the end of 2029. Foxconn's INR80 billion project will be divided into three phases, which include INR30 billion in investments by fiscal 2024 (April 2023 to March 2024), INR40 billion investment by fiscal 2026, and INR10 billion investment by 2027.
Besides Foxconn, other investors include Ather Energy's INR5.04 billion manufacturing plant for electric two-wheelers, Amplus Active Private's power plants, and C2GR Private's project for anode materials production for lithium-ion batteries.
According to the reports, among the 18 proposed projects, 18 are new, five are for expansion, and three are additional investment proposals.
In early March, Foxconn's delegation led by Liu visited India's Telangana and Karnataka, with Foxconn signing MoUs with the states before it clarified these MoUs were not definitive, which aroused controversy and forced Foxconn to send letters to the chief ministers of the states saying it would commit to the agreements that it had signed with the two states.
Still, it goes without doubt that Foxconn's India investment push has been accelerating. In addition to mobile phone manufacturing investments, Foxconn has partnered with Vedanta for a wafer fab and Ather Energy for PCB assemblies for components for electric two-wheelers. WSJ also reported that Foxconn might invest in another chipmaking facility on its own without incentives provided by India's central government.
