Foxconn chair Young Liu is expected to visit Tamil Nadu on Saturday to provide a residential facility for industrial employees together with Prime Minister MK Stalin.
The Vallam Vadagal Industrial Housing Project to house employees of Foxconn and other companies is a step toward building large-scale infrastructure in the state to fuel India's dreams of electronics manufacturing. Foxconn's facilities in China have entire cities springing up around them.
In 2020, the Government of Tamil Nadu established the industrial housing facility at a cost of Rs 706.5 crore. The project, with 3,120 units spread over a little over 30 acres in Sriperumbudur taluk of Kancheepuram district, is expected to accommodate around 18,720 employees.
ET had reported in June that there were several industrial housing projects in various stages being floated by the Tamil Nadu government. The Sriperumbudur project is the biggest, but there are smaller projects. For instance, an industrial housing project at Shoolagiri in Krishnagiri district is going to be tendered, a person in the know said. This is about 30 km from the Tata Electronics facility.
On Thursday, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal posted on microblogging site X that he had met Liu and discussed the Taiwanese group's expansion and investment plans in India. “Discussed the Modi government's focus on leveraging India's unique mix of talent and resources to increase domestic value addition and help penetrate global supply chains,” Goyal wrote.
This is Liu's second visit in almost a year, signaling the company's increased focus on India, in line with Apple's customer diversification away from China. ET had reported that the contract manufacturer was not only evaluating starting iPad production in India, but also looking at new product segments such as AI servers and even making Pixel smartphones in the state.
In February, Foxconn said in an exchange document that its Indian subsidiary would spend Rs 1,200 crore to build a factory that would be on company-owned land. It is also building a factory outside Bengaluru that is expected to primarily make iPhones.
The Taiwanese giant also announced that it would invest $37.2 million and join hands with the HCL Group to set up a chip packaging and testing facility in India. The announcement came after its joint venture with the Vedanta Group failed.
