Foxconn Mysteriously Exfiltrates Chinese Engineers From India iPhone Factory

It's well-known by now that virtually everyone in the hardware and chip business has been trying to diversify their manufacturing, to not be so dependent on Taiwan and China. Apple is one of those companies, having started shifting part of its iPhone production to India four years ago. However, Foxconn, the company that makes most of Apple's devices, has done something that may put this diversification strategy in peril, or at least delay it.

According to a Bloomberg report, seemingly out of nowhere, Foxconn pulled roughly 300 VIPs out of its India factory and brought them back to China. The extracted staff was mostly comprised of engineers and technicians, and the remaining on-site staff is mostly Taiwanese support personnel. The contractor is replacing the staff with personnel from Taiwan and Vietnam, though it's safe to predict the newcomers likely won't have the same level of experience as the outgoing people.

The extricated workers were part of the initial push for establishing the factory and training Indian staff, and this move is likely to slow down production, though it's hard to say just how much. Bloomberg says it reached out to multiple staff on-site, and they believe this brain drain will slow down the training and hand-off of the manufacturing technology. One interviewee stated they believe that while the quality of the finished products won't suffer, the same cannot be said for the efficiency of the assembly line, which is bound to take a hit.


The expertise of the Chinese workers has been praised by Apple's Tim Cook himself, who implied that having assurance of their support was one of the reasons why Apple set up shop in India to begin with. Additionally, software in the existing machinery is apparently almost exclusively laid out in Chinese, and while Foxconn has already asked its suppliers for localized/adapted versions of the software and machinery, that improvement is going to take a while.

It's hard to pinpoint the exact motivation for this move, though there are a couple of hypotheses. It's not out of the question to imagine that Foxconn considers that the training has been sufficiently complete, or that the timeline for it has reached its end. However, that's doubtful, given the close relationship between Apple and Foxconn, now spanning decades. Bloomberg postulates this move could be due to international saber-rattling, as China has been tightening its export of rare earth minerals and technology in response to tariffs, while India is tight-fisted about the number of visas for Chinese citizens and has banned Chinese apps including TikTok.

This move doesn't come at a good time for Apple, as the Cupertino giant is gearing up to release the iPhone 17 lineup in late summer, including a new model, the razor-thin iPhone 17 Air. Neither Apple nor Foxconn had any comment, and the latter informed the Indian government of this event with little fanfare and with no reason.