Supply Chain · Profile from Supply Chain Research Companion

Foxconn (Hon Hai Precision Industry)

The New Taipei, Taiwan contract manufacturer, founded by Terry Gou in 1974 as a maker of plastic knobs for television sets, that became the world's largest electronics manufacturing services (EMS) company by revenue by assembling other companies' products — above all Apple's iPhones, and from 2023–26 Nvidia-based AI servers — in campuses of hundreds of thousands of workers in China, and increasingly in India, Vietnam, Mexico and the United States. Hon Hai reported record 2025 revenue of ~NT$8.1tn (~$258bn, +~18%) and net profit attributable of ~NT$189bn (~$5.9bn) (company results, 16 Mar 2026, reported); in Q2 2026 its cloud and networking products passed half of revenue for the first time (~51%), and Q3 2026 revenue rose ~47% to ~NT$3.03tn (company, reported). Its supply-chain story is scale manufacturing as a service — and its labour licence: Foxconn sells the ability to hire, train and ramp a workforce the size of a city within weeks, on operating margins of ~2–3%, and the same model has repeatedly been tested by labour crises (the Shenzhen suicides of 2010, the Zhengzhou exodus and unrest of November 2022) and by the gap between political promises and plants (Wisconsin, announced 2017).

At a glance

Founded: 20 Feb 1974 (reported, verify day) in Taipei County (now New Taipei), Taiwan, by Terry Gou (Kuo Tai-ming), as Hon Hai Plastics, with start-up capital reported at ~NT$300,000 (~$7,500 at the time, reported, verify); renamed Hon Hai Precision Industry in 1982 (reported, verify). "Foxconn" is the trading name used for the group and its overseas subsidiaries
Headquarters: Tucheng District, New Taipei City, Taiwan
Ownership / structure: Public: Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd. (Taiwan Stock Exchange: 2317, listed 1991; GDRs in London). Terry Gou remains a large individual holder (reported ~12%, verify). Listed subsidiaries include Foxconn Industrial Internet (FII, Shanghai: 601138, listed Jun 2018), FIH Mobile (Hong Kong), Foxconn Interconnect Technology (Hong Kong), Foxconn Technology (Taiwan) and Sharp (Tokyo; ~66% bought in 2016, reported)
Leadership (2026): Young Liu (Liu Young-way), chairman and CEO since 1 Jul 2019, when Gou stepped back from day-to-day management (reported); Gou left the board in 2023 to seek Taiwan's presidency, and later withdrew (reported, verify dates)
Segments (company reporting): Smart consumer electronics (iPhones, other phones, consoles, PCs' assembly) · Cloud and networking products (servers incl. AI racks, networking gear) · Computing products (notebooks, desktops, tablets) · Components and other (connectors, casings, EVs, semiconductors)
Scale: Revenue ~NT$6.86tn (2024, reported, verify) → ~NT$8.1tn (~$258.3bn, 2025, +~18%); 2025 net profit attributable ~NT$189.35bn (~$5.92bn, +24%), EPS NT$13.61 (record), cash dividend NT$7.2 a share (record); Q4 2025 gross margin ~5.88%, the lowest since Q1 2023 (company, 16 Mar 2026, reported). Q2 2026: revenue ~NT$2.53tn; net profit ~NT$59.97bn (+35%, net margin ~2.37%); cloud and networking ~51% of revenue (from ~48% in Q1 2026 and ~41–42% in Q2–Q3 2025), smart consumer electronics ~29% (company, reported). Q3 2026 revenue ~NT$3.03tn (+~47% y/y, +~20% q/q; unaudited monthly sales, re
Workforce: Reported at ~700,000–1,000,000+ worldwide depending on season and year (reported, verify current figure); Zhengzhou alone ~200,000–300,000 at peak (reported, verify)
Network: China (Shenzhen Longhua and Guanlan, Zhengzhou, Taiyuan, Chengdu, Kunshan and others); India (Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu; Devanahalli near Bengaluru; Telangana; components units); Vietnam (Bac Giang, Bac Ninh, Quang Ninh); Mexico (Guadalajara/El Salto, Jalisco; Chihuahua; Ciudad Juárez); US (Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin; Houston, Texas; Lordstown, Ohio (operated after its 2025 sale to SoftBank); San Jose and other California sites); Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia; Brazil; Japan (Sharp) (company and press, reported, verify current list)
Signature moves (incl. failures): Founding and the Shenzhen Longhua campus (1974–88); iPhone assembly for Apple (2007–); the Shenzhen suicides and wage rises (2010, failure); Sharp (2016); Wisconsin promise and retreat (2017–25, failure); India iPhone assembly (2019–26); the Lordstown EV bet and the SoftBank sale (2021–25, failure); Zhengzhou lockdown and worker exodus (2022, failure); AI-server plants in Mexico and Texas (2024–26)

9 strategic moves analysed

Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.

1974
Founding and the Shenzhen Longhua Campus
Founding, then network build — a plastics moulder that moved into PC connectors and, from 1988, built its first mainland Chinese campus at Longhua, Shenzhen
2007
iPhone Assembly for Apple
Customer contract — final assembly and test of Apple's iPhone at Shenzhen, then Zhengzhou, Taiyuan and later India; the start of Foxconn's largest concentration
2010
Shenzhen Suicides and Wage Rises
Safety incident and labour response — a cluster of worker suicides at the Longhua and Guanlan campuses in Shenzhen, followed by wage rises, safety nets, counselling, and an accelerated move inland (failure of the labour licence)
2016
Sharp Acquisition
Acquisition — Hon Hai and affiliates bought ~66% of Sharp through new shares, the first foreign takeover of a major Japanese electronics company (reported)
2017
Wisconsin Promise and Retreat
Network build announced as a ~$10bn LCD plant; scaled back to a far smaller operation (failure of the original plan), later partly repurposed to servers and AI
2019
India iPhone Assembly and Expansion
Sourcing shift or factory move — current-generation iPhone assembly at Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu (from 2019), then a large new plant at Devanahalli near Bengaluru, Karnataka, and component units
2021
Lordstown EV Bet and the SoftBank Sale
Strategy pivot (contract manufacturing of EVs in the US) through the purchase of a former GM plant from Lordstown Motors; failure of the EV plan, followed by divestment of the plant to SoftBank and conversion to data-centre equipment
2022
Zhengzhou Lockdown and Worker Exodus
Disruption and response — COVID outbreak under China's closed-loop rules, a mass departure of workers, emergency recruitment with bonuses, and protests over pay; failure of concentration and of the labour licence
2024
AI Server Plants in Mexico and Texas
Network build and strategy pivot — capacity for Nvidia-based AI servers (GB200, then GB300 NVL72 racks) in Mexico (Guadalajara/El Salto, Jalisco), Taiwan and the US (Houston, Texas; Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin; Lordstown, Ohio with SoftBank)

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