Fortune Magazine - Grady McGregor
Aug 4, 2022
Alan Yeung dismissed the idea that Foxconn would ever renege on its tax commitment. “It’s not only groundless, it is irresponsible to speculate.” “I am still a believer in Wisconn Valley,” he says.
‘We’re stuck with this white elephant’: A Wisconsin town’s big bet on electronics maker Foxconn hasn’t panned out as planned
In 2017, Terry Gou, then CEO of electronics manufacturing giant Foxconn, announced in the White House’s East Room that his firm would spend $10 billion to build a state-of-the-art megafactory in Wisconsin that would make LCD television and computer screens. “We are committed to creating great jobs for American people,” Gou said at the press conference, promising 13,000 new jobs for Wisconsinites.
The announcement spawned the Wisconn Valley Science and Technology Park and the aspiration that the cornfields of southeastern Wisconsin could become a global tech hub with the help of Foxconn, best known for producing iPhones for Apple. “We believe this will have a transformational effect on Wisconsin, just as Silicon Valley transformed the San Francisco Bay Area,” Wisconsin’s then-Gov. Scott Walker declared at the press conference, alongside then-President Donald Trump and top Wisconsin lawmakers...
