(Reuters) -Apple’s main supplier, Foxconn Technology Group, is planning to invest close to $500 million to build two component factories in India, Bloomberg News reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.
These factories will be built in the southern state of Karnataka and at least one of them will produce Apple parts, including for iPhones, the report said.
The exact locations of the new plants in the state are yet to be decided and a formal announcement is expected as early as this week.
Foxconn and Apple did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
Karnataka has already approved investment to the tune of 80 billion rupees ($972.88 million) by a Foxconn unit in March, making it the third southern Indian state after Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu to allow Foxconn plants.
As part of its investment drive in India in its bid to diversify beyond China, the Taiwanese company has also signed a deal with Tamil Nadu to invest 16 billion rupees in a new electronic components manufacturing facility that will create 6,000 jobs, the state government said on Monday.
The Foxconn Industrial Internet facility will be built in the Kancheepuram district near the state capital of Chennai, a state government source said on condition of anonymity as details are not yet public.
($1 = 82.2300 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Urvi Dugar and Chavi Mehta in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)
