Foxconn has pledged up to $100 million to the University of Wisconsin-Madison to fund a new research facility for its College of Engineering.
This facility will collaborate with Foxconn’s planned manufacturing plant in southeast Wisconsin. Funding will be used to investigate subjects including artificial intelligence, 8K resolution, robotics, and 5G wireless technology — along with human health areas, such as genomics research and medical imaging.
The gift is conditional, based on the University of Wisconsin-Madis raising another $100 million in private gifts over the next two years. Provided the gift is completed, however, it will be among the largest such awards that the university has ever received.
Foxconn chairman and founder Terry Gou was in Wisconsin this week to help announce the award.
“At Foxconn, we see our role as not only being a major investor in Wisconsin, but also a long-term partner to the local community,” Gou said. “This includes promoting a vibrant environment that nurtures and enables Wisconsin’s talented workforce, allowing them to tap the immense opportunities that Wisconn Valley has to offer.”
Foxconn in Wisconsin
Foxconn’s upcoming facility in Wisconsin is tied with President Donald Trump’s bid to bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. The facility was originally reported as being a sprawling $10 billion, 1,000 acre campus that would create around 13,000 local jobs. Last August, Wisconsin’s state Assembly voted to approve a bill offering Foxconn a $3 billion incentive package for its new plant.
More recently, however, one report suggested that Foxconn has already started scaling back on its plans for the plant. Despite President Trump attending the groundbreaking ceremony this summer, construction still hasn’t begun and the plant could be much smaller than originally planned.
Foxconn has said that it remains committed to the area, and is testing the waters by building a smaller plant ahead of the much larger one.
Source: University of Wisconsin-Madison
