Foxconn to invest $138 million for new business headquarters in China

BEIJING (Reuters) -Taiwan's Foxconn, the world's largest contract electronics maker and Apple's biggest iPhone assembler, said on Wednesday it plans to invest 1 billion yuan ($137.5 million) to construct a new business headquarters in Zhengzhou, China.

Foxconn, formally called Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd, signed a contract with the Henan provincial government for the proposed project, which will have a construction area of about 700 acres (283 hectares), the company said.

Foxconn is benefiting from strong demand for servers for artificial intelligence applications, with its customers also including AI chip darling Nvidia.

The Taiwanese company this month posted better-than-expected quarterly revenue on AI server demand, and forecast continued growth in the current quarter.

Foxconn announced plans for its new business headquarters in Henan province in April, which it said would focus mainly on new technologies and core technology research, although it did not reveal an investment figure at the time.

The world's largest iPhone manufacturing facility in Zhengzhou was hit in 2022 by a COVID-19 outbreak that prompted worker departures and unrest as well as production disruptions.

($1 = 7.2748 Chinese yuan)

(Reporting by Bernard Orr and Shanghai newsroom; Writing by Anne Marie Roantree; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Jamie Freed)