HSINCHU, Taiwan -- Taiwanese electronics giant Foxconn said on Thursday it will buy a semiconductor plant from a local memory chip supplier for $90 million, marking a major step by the iPhone assembler to secure a source of chips for its nascent electric vehicle business.
Foxconn has made electric vehicles a major focus of its growth strategy as it looks to offset a slowdown in its mainstay consumer electronics segment. Securing supplies of chips is crucial to that goal given the global semiconductor supply shortage, company chairman Young Liu has said, and the fact that EVs use far more chips than conventional cars.
