Workers are seen at a workshop in Longhua science and technology park of Foxconn Technology Group in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province, Feb 22, 2019. (Xinhua/Mao Siqian)

In response to media reports that Foxconn has invested 60 billion yuan ($8.6 billion) to build a chip packaging and testing factory in Qingdao, East China's Shandong Province, the firm said that the reported figure was inaccurate but did not deny the plan.

"For detailed information please refer to our press release after [it is] officially signed," a spokesperson of Foxconn told the Global Times on Thursday.

A Taiwan-based news website quoted industry insiders as saying that Foxconn's new plant in Qingdao will focus on the manufacturing of chips for 5G and artificial intelligence. The plant will also reportedly provide advanced chip packaging technology, including fan-out, bonding and stacking.

The factory is expected to start production in 2021 and achieve mass production on a commercial level in 2025, according to the report. Its designed monthly capacity is 30,000 12-inch wafers.

Foxconn, the world's largest iPhone maker, has been scaling up efforts to enter the semiconductor industry in recent years. Over the last two years, Foxconn has signed multiple agreements with governments of Zhuhai in South China's Guangdong Province, Jinan in Shandong, and Nanjing in East China's Jiangsu Province, on participating in local chip manufacturing.  

Global Times