They are patient money which is a good thing because in this case, it has been six years since we posted "Here's the Robot that Foxconn Will Use to Build Their Million-strong "Robot Kingdom" (ABB; AAPL)".
It turned out the Chinese government preferred that Foxconn's Mr. Gou not fully automate the Shenzhen facility and put 500,000 people out of work.
So ABB has taken a slightly different approach.
From Reuters:
Robots will make robots at a new ABB (ABBN.S) factory in China, which the Swiss engineering group said on Saturday it plans to build for $150 million in Shanghai as it defends its place as the country’s largest maker of industrial robots.Related:
The factory, located near ABB’s China robotics campus, is due to be operating by the end of 2020 and will produce robots for China as well as for export elsewhere in Asia. China is ABB’s No. 2 market after the United States.
“Shanghai has become a vital center for advanced technology leadership – for ABB and the world,” ABB Chief Executive Ulrich Spiesshofer said in a statement announcing the project.
With the expansion, ABB is banking on Chinese robots sales defying concerns over trade tensions with the United States that some fear could dent demand for electronics, auto parts and other items that require automated manufacturing and robots.
China is expanding its robot workforce, as wages for human workers there rise and the country seeks to compete with lower-cost countries via greater automation. In 2017, one of every three robots sold in the world went to China, which purchased nearly 138,000 units, ABB said....MORE
Sept 2017
"Race to Make Robots for China Spurs ABB Plan to Double Capacity" (ABB)
Well it's about time....
November 2012
Foxconn Begins Installing First 10,000 Robots (AAPL)
These are simple robotic arms* not the anthropomorphized bots we mentioned in August's "Here's the Robot that Foxconn Will Use to Build Their Million-strong "Robot Kingdom" (ABB; AAPL)".
As speculated, Foxconn is building their own robots....
*Compare to the ABB FRIDA from our August post:
7-axis, dual arm, 720 degree 'wrist' spin, portable, and on and on:
October 2014
"Million Robot Revolution Delayed—iPhone Manufacturer Foxconn Hires More Humans"
“Hon Hai has a workforce of over one million worldwide and as human beings are also animals, to manage one million animals gives me a headache.”
- Foxconn CEO Terry Gou at an annual family day for staff at the Taipei Zoo.
Via the Financial Times
