Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics maker, is planning on investing at least $7 billion in a display-making plant in the United States, company chairman and chief executive Terry Gou said on Sunday.
The facility would create an eventual 30,000 to 50,000 jobs, Bloomberg News reports.
Gou predicted that there would be a rise in American protectionism after President Trump talked about putting “America First” in his inauguration speech, Reuters reports.
The rise in demand for larger displays in the U.S. has made the U.S. a more attractive location for production than shipping from China, Gou said.
Foxconn has been considering a move like this for awhile, but the issue came up when business partner Masayoshi Son, head of Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp, spoke to Gou before he met with Trump in December.
That meeting caused Son to pledge $50 billion of investment in the U.S. and inadvertently disclosed an additional $7 billion investment.
Gou said he told Son that the U.S. is the second largest market for televisions, even though there is no panel-making industry in the U.S. He added that Foxconn would focus on Pennsylvania, a state where the company has existing operations and is a possible location where they would develop a new molding facility.
Gou also said that Foxconn would remain active in China, where the company is considered to be one of its biggest employers.
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