Foxconn Technology Group,  a Taiwanese multinational electronics contract manufacturer, is in talks with Saudi Arabia over jointly building a $9 billion multipurpose facility that could make microchips, electric-vehicle components and other electronics, a Wall Street Journal report said.

 

The Saudi government is reviewing an offer from the company, the biggest assembler of Apple's iPhones, to build a dual-line foundry for surface-mount technology and wafer fabrication in Neom, a tech-focused city coming up in the kingdom, the WSJ report quoting people familiar with the matter said.

 

The Saudis are conducting due diligence and benchmarking the offer against others that Foxconn has made for similar projects globally, one of the people said.

 

Besides Saudi Arabia, Foxconn is also talking with the UAE about potentially siting the project there, one of the people said.

 

Saudi Arabia could offer direct equity co-investment, industrial development loans, low-interest debt from local banks and export credits to Foxconn, said another person familiar with the talks.

 

Riyadh wants the company to guarantee that it would direct at least two-thirds of the foundry’s production into Foxconn’s existing supply chain, one of the people said, to ensure there are buyers for its products and the project is ultimately profitable, the report said.

 

Saudi authorities and Foxconn didn’t respond to requests for comment, said WSJ.