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

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

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.

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.

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.

Apple and computing giant Dell will join a Foxconn-led consortium bidding for Toshiba's highly prized chip unit, the CEO of the world's largest contract electronics manufacturer told Reuters on Monday.

Foxconn boss Terry Guo said he pushed Apple to choose TSMC because Taiwanese companies must stick together against the "Korean Wave."

"We will charter flights for Chinese New Year and fly Hon Hai workers back to Taiwan to vote," Gou told reporters as he toured the island stumping for the ruling Kuomintang party candidates.

The tech sector is well represented on this year's list, which overall includes 1,210 people who together control US$4.5 trillion in wealth. The highest-ranked Taiwanese tech execs are the husband-and-wife team of Cher Wang and Wenchi Chen.