:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/55895471/477550750.0.jpg)
President Donald Trump is claiming victory as Taiwanese manufacturing giant Foxconn announced it would invest $10 billion in the United States and build a new factory employing at least 3,000 workers in Wisconsin.
The new outpost — formally unveiled at an event at the White House on Wednesday — primarily will manufacture LCD screens. Over time, the Trump administration believes it could grow to employ as many as 13,000 workers while paving the way for additional Foxconn investments in other parts of the country.
In the eyes of the White House, the announcement itself marks a major win. Speaking with reporters earlier in the day, a senior official attributed Foxconn’s plans to the “deregulation” policies of the Trump administration and its previous pledges to advance tax and infrastructure reforms — even though the president has yet to offer any such plans to Congress.
A spokesman for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, however, did not comment Wednesday when asked if his state had offered any tax incentives or other perks to Foxconn as it decided where to locate its new factory.
Still, Foxconn’s investment pledge follows months of lobbying by Trump and his aides, who met repeatedly with the company’s chief executive, Terry Gou. In January, Gou himself said Foxconn could invest more than $7 billion in the United States during the Trump administration. Then, in April, he revealed his company was “engaged in discussions” with state and federal leaders.
For one thing, the investment may spare some of Foxconn’s tech customers, like Apple and Google, additional political headaches at a time when Trump continues to slam U.S. companies for making many of their products outside the country.
And it could score some political points for the Taiwanese company, putting it in the ranks of companies like Alibaba, SoftBank and Intel that have announced U.S. investments in a bid to win favor with the White House — even at times allowing Trump to take credit for plans that predate his presidency.
It still remains to be seen how — or if — Foxconn will actually proceed with its commitments. As the Washington Post found earlier this year, the new factory the Taiwanese company announced in 2013 it was planning to build in Pennsylvania never actually materialized.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
