Taiwan-based Foxconn has broken ground on a new $500 million factory in the Indian state of Telangana just under a month after Apple CEO Tim Cook met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Foxconn is one of Apple‘s largest suppliers and directly produces a reported 70% of the world’s iPhone supply. The new Telangana factory will employ 25,000 workers “in the first phase,” according to a tweet from the government of Telangana.
Foxconn’s concerted push comes as China actively courts outside investment and attempts to rebuild industrial output after lengthy Covid lockdowns sent production numbers plummeting.
As geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and China mount, however, global companies like Apple have begun to push their suppliers to diversify out of the country, which had long been a hub for affordable and dependable production.
Foxconn’s chairman and CEO Young Liu toured India in February and March. At the time, Foxconn told local outlets that it didn’t enter into any “binding, definitive agreements for new investments during this trip.”
Despite those comments, Foxconn entered into an agreement with the Telangana government on Mar. 2, according to a tweet quoting Telangana’s IT minister K.T. Rama Rao. Foxconn did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the discrepancy on when a deal was reached.
Bloomberg previously reported on Foxconn’s effort to build another factory in the Indian state of Karnataka, just outside of Bengaluru.