Foxconn

Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd., also known as Foxconn, was established in 1974 in Tucheng, New Taipei City, Taiwan. It has since become the world's largest contract manufacturer of electronics.

Foxconn's first manufacturing plant in Mainland China opened in Longhua Town, Shenzhen, in 1988.

Foxconn CZ was established on 18th May 2000 in the Czech Republic. The production began in Pardubice in the premises of the former company of Tesla, with the first employees starting on 1st June.

One of the important milestones for Foxconn occurred in 2001 when Intel selected the company to manufacture its Intel-branded motherboards instead of Asus.

The service division known as GSSD or FGSD was established to focus on repairs and modernizing entire products and individual components for the European market.

The new division CNSBG, currently known as G Group, was established and the production of routers, switches, telepresence systems, and rack servers was launched.

By November 2007, Foxconn further expanded with an announced plan to build a new US$500 million plant in Huizhou, Southern China.

The production in the newly constructed plant in Kutná Hora started in this year.

Sun Danyong, a 25-year-old man, committed suicide in July 2009 after reporting the loss of an iPhone 4 prototype in his possession. His death attracted media attention and raised concerns about working conditions at Foxconn.

In May 2010, Shanghaiist reported that security guards at Foxconn had been caught beating factory workers, adding to the spate of negative press involving worker suicides. This further highlighted the poor working conditions at the company.

In June 2010, Steve Jobs defended Apple's relationship with Foxconn, citing that its Chinese partner is 'pretty nice' and is 'not a sweatshop'. This defense came in reaction to the negative press and worker suicides involving Foxconn.

Foxconn has been involved in several controversies relating to employee grievances or treatment, especially in China where it employed more people than any other private company as of 2011.

Bill Weir reported on the iFactory, providing an inside look at Apple's operations.

Foxconn announced the suspension of all operations at its manufacturing facility in Chennai due to dwindling orders. This led to negotiations with employees and a severance deal.

Foxconn enters India, mainly to manufacture for Nokia, an important client at that time.

On 25 February 2016, Sharp accepted a ¥700 billion (US$6.24 billion) takeover bid from Foxconn to acquire over 66 percent of Sharp's voting stock.

A month later, on 30 March 2016, the deal was announced as finalized in a joint press statement, but at a lower price.

On May 18, 2016, FIH Mobile, a subsidiary of Foxconn, announced the purchase of Microsoft Mobile's feature phone business, including the manufacturing facility in Hanoi, Vietnam, for a total sale of US$350 million.

On July 26, 2017, Foxconn announced plans to build a $10 billion TV manufacturing plant in southeastern Wisconsin, with the initial employment of 3,000 workers set to increase to 13,000. The agreement included substantial subsidies and was the largest ever given to a foreign firm in U.S. history.

A Foxconn unit, Foxconn Interconnect Technology, acquired Belkin International for $866m on 26 March 2018.

Young Liu was named the new chairman of Foxconn after the retirement of founder Terry Gou, effective on 1 July 2019. This transition signals the company's future focus on semiconductors, artificial intelligence, robotics, and autonomous driving.

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Foxconn began producing medical masks and clothing at its Shenzhen factory in China. Initially intended for internal employee use, the masks became crucial in addressing the global shortage and contributed to epidemic prevention efforts.

On 15 December 2021, 256 workers at Foxconn's Sriperumbudur factory developed Acute Diarrhoeal Disease due to food poisoning. This incident led to protests and raised concerns about the living and working conditions of the workers.

On June 2, 2022, Foxconn announced that their Mexico-based production plant had been hit by a ransomware attack, disrupting production and highlighting cybersecurity challenges in the manufacturing industry.

A pact was signed to invest $19.5 billion in a semiconductor and display production plant to be set up at Dholera Special Investment Region near Ahmedabad, Gujarat.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, minister of state for electronics and IT, mentioned that the joint venture is 'struggling' to tie up with a technology partner.

Vedanta-Foxconn brought STMicro on board for licensing technology, but the government expressed the desire for the European company to have more involvement in the partnership.

Foxconn withdrew from the semiconductor joint venture in India.

Foxconn partnered with Vedanta to establish semiconductor and display production plants in India. However, Foxconn later withdrew from the joint venture.