Madison chancellor: Foxconn's $100 million pledge unlikely
MADISON, Wis. - University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank isn't expecting the Foxconn Technology Group to honor a $100 million pledge it made to the school nearly three years ago.
The pledge made back in August 2018 was promoted as the biggest research partnership in UW-Madison history. Foxconn would make the investment in engineering and innovation research at the university.
A public records request made by the Wisconsin State Journal to UW-Madison showed on Monday that the Taiwanese electronics company gave $700,000 in the first year of the five-year agreement. That's less than 1% of the original commitment.
"I am not at this point expecting to receive that gift," Blank told the State Journal editorial board last week. "It’d be nice. I think it’s unlikely."
Blank said Foxconn faced some issues that were not anticipated, such as a trade war between the U.S. and China and other problems in markets where the company was operating. And that affected Foxconn's investment in Wisconsin, she said.
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"We continue to work with Foxconn as we do (with) any number of other companies, looking to connect them to various resources on campus, and some of those go forward and some of them don’t," Charles Hoslet, a vice chancellor who oversees the university’s partnerships with corporations.
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