Foxconn promises to build Wisconsin plant after talk with Trump

(Image credit: Brendan Smialowski / Getty Images)

published 1 February 2019

Foxconn appears to be back on.

The Taiwanese manufacturer's pledge to build a Wisconsin plant and create upwards of 13,000 jobs seemed on the outs earlier this week. But after a talk with President Trump on Friday, CNBC reports the company has reinstated its plans — sort of.

In mid-2017, Trump made a very big fuss about Foxconn's deal to build a $10 billion LCD screen-manufacturing plant that would be three times the size of the Pentagon. It planned to hire 13,000 employees, mostly factory workers, in exchange for $3 billion in government tax breaks and other economic subsidies. But trouble seemed to be brewing as locals questioned just how much Wisconsin was shelling out, as detailed on Gimlet's Reply All podcast. Foxconn later said last year that it would reduce the size of its Wisconsin factory.

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Then this week, CEO Terry Gou revealed the company may be trashing the plant plans altogether, or at least shifting the promised manufacturing jobs to researcher and engineering jobs. That prompted a direct conversation between Gou and Trump, with the president later sharing "good news:" Foxconn would build a Wisconsin factory after all. Still, it's unclear just how big that facility will be, how many jobs it will create, and just what those jobs will be.

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Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.

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