Foxconn: Trump Changed Our Mind

Foxconn Technology Group said Friday that after its chairman spoke directly with President Donald Trump the Taiwanese company will proceed with plans to construct a plant in Wisconsin that will make liquid crystal display screens that can be used for small electronic devices, the AP reports. The news capped a week of confusion about Foxconn's plans in Wisconsin. The company announced in 2017, to much fanfare, that it planned to invest $10 billion in the state and hire 13,000 people to build an LCD factory that could make screens for televisions and a variety of other devices. The company last year said it was reducing the scale of what was to be made in Wisconsin, from what is known as a Gen 10 factory to Gen 6.

But this week, even that was thrown into question with Foxconn executive Louis Woo saying it couldn't compete in the television screen market and would not be making LCD panels in Wisconsin. But on Friday, in yet another twist, Foxconn said after discussions with the White House and a personal conversation between Trump and Foxconn chairman Terry Gou, it plans to proceed with the smaller manufacturing facility. The Foxconn statement did not say whether the commitment to this size factory would affect the type of workers who would be employed in Wisconsin. Wisconsin promised nearly $4 billion in state and local tax incentives to Foxconn if it invested $10 billion and created 13,000 jobs for the project, which Trump heralded last year as the "eighth wonder of the world." (Analysts see a downside to the whole Foxconn/Wisconsin deal.)