According to a new report from Bloomberg, Foxconn is set to spend $2.6 billion building a new factory in Taiwan exclusively to create displays for Apple.
Equipment installation for the factory is likely to begin next month, with the aim of starting mass production of panels by the end of 2015. The factory will require hiring an addition workforce of 2,300 people, and is going to be built at Innolux’s Kaohsiung Science Park campus in Southern Taiwan.
Foxconn currently has factories in China dedicated to assembling iPhones and iPads, but this will be the company’s first designed entirely with the goal of producing Apple components to go inside the devices.
While Foxconn has previously looked to lessen its reliance on Apple, there’s no doubt that producing devices for the Cupertino company is one of the most lucrative contracts available to a manufacturer.
Having struggled to keep up with demand for the iPhone 6 despite hiring around 20,000 new employees, Foxconn’s move is likely designed to wrest back orders from Apple, which has shown a willingness to grant them to rival manufacturers like Pegatron, that have shown a willingness to expand rapidly to meet Apple’s demands.