Foxconn will not construct electrical tractors for California startup Monarch Tractor after the Taiwanese tech large just lately bought its Ohio manufacturing unit to SoftBank.
Monarch CEO Praveen Penmetsa confirmed the information in a LinkedIn remark Tuesday. He additionally stated his firm labored with Foxconn to “construct up stock” earlier than the sale of the manufacturing unit, noting his startup has “sufficient to satisfy buyer demand for the subsequent 12 months, together with ample spare elements.”
“Within the coming weeks, we shall be sharing extra about our plans to introduce extra Monarch-enabled merchandise out there via new manufacturing partnerships,” Penmetsa wrote.
Following the sale, SoftBank is anticipated to work with Foxconn to make use of the manufacturing unit to make tools for the Stargate AI mission led by OpenAI and Oracle.
Foxconn bought the previous Basic Motors manufacturing unit from EV startup Lordstown Motors in 2022. Younger Liu, Foxconn’s chairman, stated previous to the sale closing that the power was going to be the “most vital electrical automobile manufacturing and R&D hub in North America.”
Monarch was one in all 4 firms Foxconn promoted as clients (or potential clients) of the electrical automobile contract manufacturing operation it tried to ascertain on the former Basic Motors manufacturing unit. Foxconn constructed a couple of hundred tractors for Monarch on the plant, however the startup has struggled. Final yr, it went via two rounds of layoffs and needed to rapidly pivot to new sorts of clients as California’s wine business crashed.
The opposite three firms Foxconn wished to construct autos for have all filed for chapter. Whereas Foxconn made a handful of Lordstown Motors pickups on the plant, the startup went underneath in 2023. The opposite two potential clients have been Fisker Inc. and a small California startup known as IndiEV. Foxconn by no means constructed any autos for these firms on the manufacturing unit, and so they have additionally each since gone out of enterprise.
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