Foxconn promised $10B for Wisconsin — created 500 jobs

In July 2017, Foxconn announced it would build a $10 billion LCD manufacturing campus in Wisconsin, creating up to 13,000 jobs. President Trump called it 'the eighth wonder of the world.' The state of Wisconsin offered up to $4 billion in tax credits and incentives — the largest subsidy package ever offered to a foreign company in the US. The deal was meant to signal a revival of American manufacturing.

But the project was downgraded almost immediately. By early 2019, Foxconn was reconsidering LCD manufacturing, citing high US labor costs. The factory was reduced from a Gen 10.5 LCD plant to a smaller Gen 6 facility, then to an R&D campus, and finally to a packaging and warehousing hub. By the end of 2019, Foxconn had invested about $900 million and employed roughly 550 people.

In April 2021, Foxconn formally renegotiated the deal. The investment target was cut to $672 million, the job target to 1,454, and the eligible tax credits to $80 million. The site never produced a single LCD panel. In 2023, Microsoft began buying the land to build a data center campus. The Foxconn project became a textbook case of how corporate incentives can produce a grand announcement with little to show for it.