On February 20, Hon Hai Group (Foxconn) celebrated its 50th anniversary with a grand banquet, hosting prominent guests from major clients like Apple, suppliers, partners, government representatives, and diplomats, totaling 500 attendees from around the world. The spotlight shone on the interaction between Apple and Foxconn, underscoring their robust partnership evident in a post-event group photo.
The photo captured key figures from leading tech firms, including Arm CEO Rene Haas, SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son, Cisco's senior VP of supply chain operations John Kern, AMD data center solutions business group's executive president and general manager Forrest Norrod, Nvidia vice president and Taiwan general manager Eunice Chiu, Intel vice president and Taiwan general manager Grace Wang, as well as representatives from other important partners like HP and Dell.
Notably, on either side of Foxconn founder Terry Gou and chairman Young Liu stood Jeff Williams, Apple's chief operating officer, Vice Premier of the Executive Yuan Cheng Wen-Tsan, and Sabih Khan, Apple's senior vice president of operations.
Supply chain insiders highlighted the rarity of Apple sending two top executives to such an event in CEO Tim Cook's absence. Besides Williams and Khan, Apple had over 10 other executives present, signaling the company's deep commitment to Foxconn.
Guests revealed that although Tim Cook couldn't attend, he conveyed gratitude and congratulations to Foxconn via a recorded video, reminiscing about the deep impression Foxconn left on him since their first collaboration on the iMac casings.
Throughout their previous collaborations, Cook indicated, both sides continuously developed new equipment and processes, improving the lives of millions by producing new devices and further refining the significance of advanced manufacturing for the global industry.
Looking ahead, Cook anticipates further collaboration with Foxconn over the next 50 years to push manufacturing capabilities to new heights.
Market analysts perceive Foxconn as a long-standing crucial Apple partner since the Steve Jobs era. Particularly, now that regional development and localized production are gaining momentum, Foxconn's relationship with Apple, as demonstrated in the photo, is expected to grow even closer.
