By winning contracts for most of Apple’s mobile devices over the past five years, Chinese manufacturer Foxconn has become one of the largest companies in China. Though the company is still sitting at the forefront of smartphone, tablet, and other technology manufacturing industries, its executives are planning for a long-term future.
Foxconn group president Terry Guo has announced that the company intends to invest $40 million more in its U.S. operations in Pennsylvania. The new investment will be a part of the company’s “Advanced Manufacturing in America” initiative and is in-line with reports last year that held the company would be opening manufacturing plants in the U.S.
According to a DigiTimes report, Foxconn will pay $30 million to expand a research and development team tasked with laying the groundwork for a manufacturing facility in Pennsylvania. The plant will reportedly be used for manufacturing products related to the medical, automotive, and environmental industries. The company will hire 500 new employees through the expansion. In addition to the expansion, Foxconn will be paying Carnegie Melon University $10 million to research robotic industrial automation.
This new investment comes as Foxconn is expanding its operations beyond the manufacturing sector. The company this summer applied for a 4G LTE spectrum license for Taiwan, suggesting it may soon become a mobile provider in the country. Foxconn also recently opened a $25 million research and development center in China to test products and house a new cloud computing datacenter.