Beijing dropped a bombshell when it unveiled a tax and land-use probe into the world's largest assembler of iPhones.

Foxconn should have played this smarter. The deal was part of a broader strategy to buy its way into the EV market, in which it has no background. It ought to have viewed the Lordstown transaction the way a venture capitalist does with any unproven startup. But instead it got all legalistic, which it has every right to do, and now both sides are slinging mud.

When former Samsung executive Choi Jinseog won a contract with Taiwan's Foxconn in 2018, he tapped his former employer's supplier network to steal secrets to help his new client set up a chip factory in China, an indictment by South Korean prosecutors alleges.

Terry Gou, founder of major Apple supplier Foxconn, is seeking the presidential nomination for Taiwan's main opposition party for a second time.

Apple is set to sign up Chinese contract manufacturer Luxshare Precision Industry to produce premium iPhone models, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing sources familiar with the matter. Luxshare has been producing small numbers of the iPhone 14 Pro Max at its Kunshan plant, to make up for lost production at Foxconn's Zhengzhou factory last year.

Chinese authorities are recruiting workers from villages and moving them to Foxconn's iPhone assembly lines after the Apple partner suffered a mass exodus.

Beijing's censors have removed viral videos circulating on Chinese social media showing workers at the Zhengzhou facility in central China asking for supplies. Two workers told the Financial Times that the factory failed to deliver food regularly to staff under quarantine.

Volkswagen and Foxconn Technology Group are keeping their workers on-site in their factories in Chengdu after the Chinese metropolis locked down its 21 million residents to contain a Covid-19 outbreak.

Apple supplier Foxconn has signed a $300 million memorandum of understanding with Vietnamese developer Kinh Bac City to expand its facility in the north of the country to diversify and boost production, state media said on Saturday.

This week's announcement that India's Vedanta has tied up with Taiwan's Foxconn Technology to make chips is being lauded as proof that New Delhi is gaining traction with its plans to build a semiconductor industry. That's hardly the case.

Apple said it had placed the southern Indian factory of iPhone assembler Foxconn on probation after both companies found that some worker dormitories and dining rooms did not meet required standards.

Luxshare Precision Industry is building a massive manufacturing complex in eastern China as it aims to break the decadelong hold that Taiwanese rivals Foxconn and Pegatron have on iPhone assembly.

Taiwan's Foxconn and TSMC said on Monday they had reached deals to buy 10 million doses of Germany's BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine, putting the total cost of the highly politicised deal at around $350 million.

Taiwan will allow Terry Gou, the billionaire founder of Taiwan's Foxconn, and TSMC to negotiate on the government's behalf for COVID-19 vaccines, a spokesman said on Friday, but warned he couldn't guarantee success.

Taiwanese Apple suppliers have been working to turn India into an alternative production base to China.

Worldwide electronics leader Foxconn Technology Group violated terms of its contract in Wisconsin, while local governments spend hundreds of millions of dollars to prepare for the project, a lawsuit filed by a real estate development company alleges.

Apple will manufacture Made-In-India iPhone 12 soon, its latest model launched in India on October 30 last year, a few weeks after the global release. iPhone 12, according to sources in the know, will be manufactured at the Hon Hai Precision Industry (Foxconn) facility in Tamil Nadu - both for the domestic as well as well as the export market.

Electric-car maker Fisker said on Wednesday it will collaborate with Foxconn on an electric vehicle project and forecast that production would start in the fourth quarter of 2023.

Vietnam on Monday awarded a licence to a unit of Taiwan's Foxconn Technology Co Ltd to build a $270 million plant to produce laptops and tablets, the Vietnamese government said.

Taiwan's Foxconn and Chinese automaker Zhejiang Geely Holding Group said on Wednesday they will join hands to provide contract manufacturing for automakers.

Byton, Foxconn and Nanjing Development Zone signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement on Monday to jointly produce Byton's M-Byte SUV by the first quarter of 2022.

A lifeline for the beleaguered facility

Apple's top iPhone assembler, Taiwan-based Foxconn, has set up a task force to fend off the growing clout of Chinese electronics manufacturer Luxshare, which it believes poses a serious threat to its dominance, three sources with knowledge of the matter said.

Foxconn Technology Group's investments in the US have fallen short of promises made in 2017, when US President Donald Trump hailed the firm's promises to build a factory as a sign of America's manufacturing revival.

India on Tuesday said it was approving incentives under a federal plan to boost domestic smartphone production to 16 companies, including top Apple suppliers Foxconn, Wistron and Pegatron.

This marks Foxconn's latest semiconductor project in China after other chip-related development initiatives in Nanjing, Jinan and Zhuhai. The Qingdao semiconductor packaging and testing plant will focus on chips used on 5G and AI-based hardware products.

Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Foxconn reported a 23.7% fall in profit in the last three months of 2019 on Monday as it braces for the impact from the coronavirus pandemic that has hit demand from key customers such as Apple.

Recruitment goals ahead of schedule, as Apple prepares for new model releases

Apple's main iPhone maker Foxconn got the green light on Monday to reopen two major plants in China closed because of the coronavirus and aims to resume production even though only 10% of the workforce has returned so far, a source told Reuters.

Local Chinese authorities have not blocked Apple supplier Foxconn from resuming production amid a coronavirus outbreak, they said in a statement on Sunday, denying an earlier report in the Nikkei Business Daily.

Apple and manufacturing partner Foxconn on Monday rebutted allegations of lapses in people management leveled by a non-profit monitor of worker rights, though confirmed they employed too many temporary workers.

Key iPhone assemblers Foxconn, Pegatron Corp, Wistron Corp, major MacBook maker Quanta Computer Inc, iPad maker Compal Electronics Inc, and AirPods makers Inventec Corp, Luxshare-ICT and Goertek have been asked to evaluate options outside of China, Nikkei reported.

Foxconn is poised to nominate chip unit boss Liu Young to succeed Terry Gou as chairman in a surprise choice by the iPhone assembler, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said.

Wisconsin's governor said on Wednesday he wants to renegotiate the state's contract with Foxconn Technology Group Ltd because the Taiwanese company is not expected to reach its job creation goals for the state.

The chairman of Foxconn said on Monday he plans to step down in the coming months to pave the way for younger talent to move up the company's ranks.

Foxconn Technology Group Chairman Terry Gou said the iPhone will go into mass production in India this year, a shift for the largest assembler of Apple's handsets that has long concentrated production in China.

Forty-four companies are now in the program, Apple said on Thursday, including Foxconn and TSMC.

Last summer, Foxconn announced a barrage of new projects in Wisconsin - so we went looking for them

Microsoft has also accused the company of not paying royalties on time.

Workers at Foxconn's Yukang dormitory compound in Zhengzhou queue up to resign from their jobs which attract a basic salary of CNY2,100 (US$314) per month.