In November, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC), approved a fresh $569 million investment by Foxconn in its Mount Pleasant facility, part of a broader plan to expand operations in Racine County over the next few years.
The expansion is projected to create more than 1,300 new jobs, including both factory and office positions, with the company citing rising demand for artificial-intelligence servers as the driving force behind the move.
Foxconn’s chief product officer, Jerry Hsiao, noted that this “second-stage” project would double the company’s Wisconsin workforce by the end of the decade. (RELATED: Wisconsin Supreme Court Advances Redistricting Cases)
By the end of 2024, Foxconn had already invested over $700 million and created more than 1,200 jobs. Under the revised agreement, Foxconn is eligible for up to $96 million in state tax credits through 2029 if it meets performance benchmarks. WEDC anticipates that by 2029 the project will yield a total of some 2,600 jobs and about $1.2 billion in investment.
When the deal was first struck, the company had committed to build a massive flat-panel display manufacturing plant, a $10 billion investment.
At its 2017 announcement at the White House, Foxconn projected up to 13,000 jobs and boasted that it would be the largest single corporate investment in U.S. history at the time. Those commitments formed the basis of the agreement signed by then-Governor Scott Walker.
For Walker, the original agreement represented a bold effort to revitalize manufacturing in southeastern Wisconsin and bring back high-paying blue-collar jobs. The deal was pitched as a win for working families and the state’s industrial base, supported by substantial tax incentives and infrastructure improvements to accommodate the anticipated growth. (RELATED: Underfunded and Under Fire: Council Overrides Johnson’s MFD Cuts)
Prior updates to the contract had already scaled back the size of the project. By 2021, the original agreement was reduced dramatically: planned investment dropped from $10 billion to about $672 million, and new job commitments shrank accordingly.