Three of Apple’s major suppliers are considering building plants in the United States. Foxconn, its subsidiary Sharp, and chipmaker TSMC are all considering taking advantage of incentives likely to be offered when U.S. President-Elect Donald Trump takes office.
Foxconn and Sharp are considering building an LCD manufacturing plant in the U.S., a Sharp executive said Friday, according to Nikkei. While the option is “on the table,” the unnamed executive said such a decision must be made “carefully.”
The building of such plants could come as part of Foxconn partner Softbank’s $50 billion investment in the U.S., which is intended to create up to 50,000 jobs.
Nikkei’s sources indicate a Sharp/Foxconn LCD plant located in the U.S. would likely be approximately the same size as a recently announced Guangzhou, China display manufacturing plant, which is scheduled to open in fall 2018. That facility carries an $8.69 billion price tag.
Nikkei also notes Foxconn is also still exploring the possibility of moving some of its manufacturing stateside, although a decision hasn’t been made as to the cost effectiveness of such a move.
In related news, DigiTimes reports Apple chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is also considering moving some production to the U.S. Company Chairman Morris Chang told the publication Trump’s talk of incentives for U.S. manufacturing has TSMC weighing its options.
While TSMC’s moving any production to the U.S. is completely preliminary, as the chipmaker weighs the pros and cons of such a move, it has been done. TSMC’s chipmaking competitor, Samsung fabricates iPhone chips at a facility in Austin, Texas.
