His comments followed reports of Foxconn pulling more than 300 Chinese engineers and technicians from its Indian production facilities on Wednesday. The development comes as Apple’s largest contract manufacturer moves ahead with ramping up production in the country, especially iPhones.
Kuo noted that there were not many Chinese employees at the company’s India iPhone facilities. Production capabilities at Foxconn’s India iPhone facilities were established by the company’s Taiwanese employees, like those from FIH’s Minsheng plant, not Chinese employees, he said.
The gradual return of Chinese employees was in the works for some time, and Apple was fully informed, the analyst stated.
Even amid US tariff threat over iPhones, Foxconn has not slowed down its expansion in India. In May, the company invested $2.56 billion in its Devanahalli plant, with a production target of 100,000 iPhones by December. The facility will prioritise housing for its predominantly female workforce, with dorms accommodating 30,000 employees.
ET reported last month that Foxconn is setting up a new unit within the ESR Industrial Park at Oragadam in Tamil Nadu specifically to make iPhone enclosures, a segment which only had Tata Electronics as a player in India so far.
India iPhone shipments by Foxconn to the United States in May 2025 were worth nearly $1 billion, the second-highest ever after the record $1.3 billion worth of devices shipped in March, the data showed.
On the sidelines, US President Donald Trump opposed Apple’s foray into India and even threatened on May 23 to have the company pay a 25% tariff if phones sold in the US were not made in that country.
In April, the Indian government approved the Taiwanese firm to build a semiconductor plant in northern India as part of a joint venture with the HCL Group. The project would attract an investment of Rs 37 crore (about $432 million) from the HCL-Foxconn joint venture.
