© Getty ImagesFoxconn has been investing in diverse high-tech sectors. Shown, the production line at a Foxconn demonstration plant.
Foxconn said the size and scope of its potential U.S. investment hasn't been determined.
"We can confirm that we are in preliminary discussions regarding a potential investment that would represent an expansion of our current U.S. operations," the Taiwanese electronics manufacturer formally known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. said Wednesday.
Foxconn's core business is electronics assembly, and Apple its biggest customer. But Foxconn has been investing in diverse high-tech sectors including robotics, e-commerce, consumer-tech startups and health care. It wasn't immediately clear which sector Foxconn is targeting for U.S. investments.
Comment: Interesting how with Trump's election - and not even being in office yet - foreign companies are pledging investments and jobs in the USA, which makes a person wonder what previous presidents were actually doing as the USA was being systematically "dismantled" (for lack of a better way of stating it).
Foxconn's statement came a day after Japan's SoftBank Group Corp. Chief Executive Masayoshi Son met with Mr. Trump in New York and pledged to invest $50 billion in the U.S. Foxconn's logo appeared beside SoftBank's on the piece of paper that Mr. Son held while speaking to reporters.
Mr. Son and Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou are longtime friends. SoftBank and Foxconn have collaborated on several investments, including on a joint venture last year with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. to sell the Japanese company's humanoid robot, Pepper.
Industry analysts say Foxconn could move some targeted parts of its manufacturing business to the U.S., but it likely isn't feasible to move iPhone production back in a large way. The U.S. has far higher labor costs and lacks the integrated supply chain that has developed in China.
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