Foxconn chair meets with Macron, announces new investments in France

Taipei, June 2 (CNA) Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) met with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Monday (local time), as the Taiwan-based manufacturing giant unveiled new investments in France in semiconductors and AI infrastructure.

The meeting took place during the annual "Choose France" summit, an event hosted by Macron to promote foreign direct investment, according to a briefing in Taipei by Franck Paris, director of the French Office in Taipei.

Speaking to reporters on Monday ahead of the meeting, Paris said Liu was expected to brief Macron on "two important developments" involving Hon Hai, also known internationally as Foxconn.

The two projects are a semiconductor packaging venture with French partners Thales and Radiall, and an AI infrastructure partnership with Bull, a French advanced computing company, said Paris, France's top envoy to Taiwan.

Paris said the meeting would give Macron an opportunity to "guarantee to Chairman Liu that these investments will be followed and monitored at the highest political level in France."

CNA reached out to Hon Hai on Tuesday for more details about Liu's meeting with Macron, but the company said any further information regarding the meeting would come from the French government or the French Office in Taipei.

According to a news release issued by Hon Hai on Monday, the project with Thales and Radiall involves the launch of Tessalia Technology SAS, a joint venture between the three companies dedicated to outsourced semiconductor assembly and testing (OSAT).

Representatives of the three companies and French officials attended a ceremony Monday to lay the foundation stone for the future Tessalia facility in Le Barp, near Bordeaux in southwestern France, as part of the "Choose France" summit, Hon Hai said.

The three companies are "combining their strengths to create, test and assemble advanced packaging solutions for electronic chips (Systems in Package, SiP) for aerospace, telecom infrastructure, automotive and medical sectors notably," the release read.

With production expected to begin at the end of 2029, Tessalia aims to produce more than 50 million SiP components per year by 2033 and employ 800 people at full production, according to the release.

The initiative also aims to bring in other industrial players to support an investment that could exceed 250 million euros (US$290.96 million) by 2033, Hon Hai said.

In a separate release, Hon Hai said its second project is a strategic collaboration with Bull to manufacture AI and cloud infrastructure in Europe for global markets.

Under the partnership, the two companies will combine their strengths to deliver AI infrastructure solutions, including computing systems and related components, by leveraging Bull's factory in Angers, western France, and Hon Hai's factories in the Czech Republic, Hon Hai added.

The project is expected to involve initial investment exceeding 120 million euros, according to the release.