Foxconn Secures $569 Million Wisconsin Expansion to Meet Surging AI Server Demand

Foxconn to expand U.S. operations at Wisconsin site with $549 million investment -- Taiwanese company gets approval for more AI data center industry in Racine County

Foxconn is expanding its Wisconsin site after pivoting it from LCDs to AI data servers. Electronics assembly company Foxconn, which is known for building iPhones for Apple, announced that it has just received regulatory approval to expand its Wisconsin factory. According to Reuters, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) has just approved the company's additional $549 million investment to expand its operations in Racine County. This will help the manufacturer build more AI servers for its clients, especially as demand is steadily increasing. "As the demand for more data infrastructure continues to rise, Foxconn will keep responding to our customers' needs with flexibility and at scale in the United States," Foxconn chief product officer Jerry Hsiao told Reuters. The move will not only increase the company's output, but it will also result in 1,374 new jobs -- effectively doubling the workforce in the state, which already accounts for 25% of the company's workforce in the U.S. The burgeoning AI demand across the industry has been fueling massive investments in chip fabs. TSMC and SoftBank are looking to spend $1 trillion to turn Arizona into a center for artificial intelligence and robotics and compete with Shenzhen. U.S. President Donald Trump even signed an executive order for the "Genesis Mission," which the White House is comparing to the Manhattan Project of World War II in terms of its scale. Aside from these plans, we also have numerous data centers going up in different sites all over the United States, with companies such as Microsoft rushing to bring them into service because they do not have enough "warm shells" to plug their GPUs into. This, in turn, is driving demand for hardware, such as high-bandwidth memory chips, resulting in shortages for the average consumer. The massive demand for AI GPUs with their high-bandwidth memory chips has led many memory chip makers to prioritize this over standard DRAM and NAND chips used for consumer memory and storage. Experts say that we could be facing a "pricing apocalypse" on these modules that could last a decade. In fact, we already see several vendors across the world increasing memory prices to ridiculous levels due to the lack of supply. Many manufacturers have even resorted to panic buying existing stocks in the open market to supplement their long-term contracts and stockpile RAM stocks. Despite this, memory chip makers like Micron, SK hynix, and Samsung reportedly have no plans to build new fabs to increase production. This is because they're wary of an AI bubble, which many experts say we are already in, that could pop anytime. Should that happen, they would be left with massive infrastructure and production capacity but with no customers to use them. Still, this is a hopeful development for the Wisconsin plant, which has seen a number of ups and downs in recent years. Foxconn initially announced in 2017 that it acquired the property to build a $10-billion LCD manufacturing plant -- but things seem to have changed in 2018, when the company scaled back its plans even after it had already received $4 billion in subsidies from the state of Wisconsin. Then, in 2019, it said that it had scrapped its plans for the factory, only to turn around shortly after and say that it was back on track. Today, the site is building AI data servers, and the massive demand from the industry seems to be driving Foxconn to increase its investments in the area. This additional half-billion-dollar investment would hopefully serve the community, bringing in jobs and opportunities for the people around it.

Foxconn wins approval for new $569 million investment in Wisconsin - The Economic Times

Taiwan's Foxconn has secured regulatory approval for a $569 million expansion in Wisconsin to boost AI server production and strengthen U.S. supply chains. This investment will double the company's presence in the state by 2030, creating 1,374 new jobs and underscoring its commitment to meeting rising data infrastructure demand.Taiwan's Foxconn said on Wednesday that it had secured regulatory approval to invest an additional $569 million in the US state of Wisconsin to meet rising demand for AI servers. The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) approved the plan to expand operations at Foxconn's facility in Racine County, the world's largest contract electronics manufacturer said in a statement. The expansion will focus on the AI server business, which Foxconn said would help strengthen domestic US supply chains. "As the demand for more data infrastructure continues to rise, Foxconn will keep responding to our customers' needs with flexibility and at scale in the United States," said Foxconn's chief product officer, Jerry Hsiao. Hsiao said Wisconsin accounts for nearly a quarter of the company's US workforce and the new investment would double its presence in the state by 2030, creating 1,374 new jobs. Foxconn, formally known as Hon Hai Technology Group, said it had spent more than $2 billion in Wisconsin in recent years across payroll, capital expenditure and taxes.

Foxconn Secures Approval to Invest Additional $569 Million in Wisconsin

Foxconn Technology has secured approval to invest an additional $569 million in Wisconsin to build artificial-intelligence infrastructure, amid surging demand for AI servers from U.S. customers. The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation gave the greenlight for Foxconn to expand its operations in Racine County, the company said in a statement on Wednesday. The planned additional investment is aimed at meeting rising AI server demand from U.S. customers and strengthening domestic supply chains, the world's largest contract electronics maker said. The Taiwanese company, which until recently was best known as an iPhone assembler for Apple, has consolidated its position in the AI supply chain by making AI servers for U.S. tech giants including Amazon and Nvidia. "As the demand for more data infrastructure continues to rise, Foxconn will keep responding to our customers' needs with flexibility and at scale in the United States," said Jerry Hsiao, Foxconn's chief product officer and U.S. general manager. Foxconn, formally known as Hon Hai Precision Industry, has spent more than $2 billion in Wisconsin over the past several years across payroll, capital expenditure and taxes, creating around 1,500 jobs in server production, it said. The additional investment plan is the second amendment to Foxconn's contract with WEDC. In 2021, WEDC approved the company's plan to shrink its investment to $672 million from the previously promised $10 billion.