A $19.5 billion joint venture project with Indian conglomerate Vedanta, which would have brought semiconductor and display production to the Indian state of Gujarat, has been abandoned by leading Apple supplier and global manufacturing giant Foxconn.
Foxconn has decided not to proceed with the joint venture with Vedanta, according to the Taiwanese business. The decision is a serious setback for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s plans to make his nation a worldwide leader in high-tech manufacturing.
Foxconn said that the decision was the result of “mutual agreement,” but added that it was still “confident” in India’s plans for the semiconductor industry. Requests for response from Vedanta were not answered.
As geopolitical and economic tensions rise, American businesses, including Apple, have pushed their suppliers to diversify their supply chains outside of mainland China. Although the $20 billion joint venture with Vedanta would have been one of the largest, Foxconn has already broken ground on a number of plant locations around India.
The separation occurs as American and Chinese corporate executives negotiate a difficult and sometimes perilous route, each treading carefully between admitting their dependency on one another and severely criticizing them.
Chinese scientific achievements and industrial domination are now publicly recognized by the U.S. government and large technology companies as a serious danger to national security. Some American businesses are reevaluating their activities in China as part of so-called “de-risking” initiatives. These businesses have long been targets of state-authorized industrial espionage by China.