MADISON, Wis. | Electronics giant Foxconn changed course and announced Wednesday that the huge Wisconsin plant that was expected to bring a bounty of blue-collar factory jobs back to the Midwest — and was lured with billions in tax incentives — will instead be primarily a research and development center staffed by scientists and engineers.
The move was decried in some camps as a case of bait-and-switch by the Taiwan-based company, which originally planned to build high-tech liquid crystal display screens in a project President Donald Trump had proudly pointed to as a sign of a resurgence in American manufacturing.
In a statement, Foxconn said it remains committed to Wisconsin and the creation of the 13,000 jobs it promised. But because the global market environment that existed when the $10 billion project was announced in 2017 has shifted, “this has necessitated the adjustment of plans for all projects.”
“This news is devastating for the taxpayers of Wisconsin,” said Wisconsin Assembly Minority Leader Gordon Hintz, a Democrat. “We were promised manufacturing jobs. We were promised state-of-the-art LCD production. … And now, it appears Foxconn is living up to their failed track record in the U.S. — leaving another state and community high and dry.”
Economic officials and other supporters of the project urged patience, saying Foxconn still plans to invest what it promised. The White House had no immediate comment.
Foxconn, a major supplier to Apple, is the world’s largest contract maker of electronics.
Louis Woo, special assistant to Foxconn’s CEO, was quoted as telling Reuters that it is scaling back and possibly shelving plans to build display screens in Wisconsin because “we can’t compete.”
Woo said that instead of a factory, Foxconn wants to create a “technology hub,” with about three-quarters of the jobs in research and development and design. Those jobs typically go to college graduates. The plant is under construction and scheduled to open in 2020.
Marc Levine, senior fellow and founding director of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Center of Economic Development, called it “one enormous bait-and-switch.” And he scoffed at the idea that Foxconn, known for manufacturing, could transform into a research and development giant.
“That’s simply not what Foxconn is,” Levine said in an email. “So the notion that there will be 13,000 research jobs at Foxconn is highly, highly unlikely.”