Foxconn chief Gou calls for patience as he invests to tap new markets

Foxconn Technology chairman Terry Gou asked shareholders to give him time to invest in new businesses including car electronics and cloud computing as he chases clients such as Tesla Motors amid slowing sales.

"Please be patient, don't be in a hurry," Gou said at the annual meeting of Hon Hai Precision Industry, Foxconn's largest unit. "I'm also the biggest shareholder, so if it's bad for Hon Hai it's also bad for me."

Foxconn, the key iPhone manufacturer for Apple and the largest private employer on the mainland, also plans to boost investment in robotics and add more high-skilled positions as Gou strives to meet his goal for profit growth of 10 per cent. Foxconn's founder has met with executives including Tesla's Elon Musk, SoftBank's Masayoshi Son and Alibaba Group's Jack Ma Yun to discuss future cooperation.

Foxconn plans to hire at least 15,000 people in Taiwan to increase its research base with positions that will not replace Chinese manufacturing jobs, Gou said. The jobs, which include 5,000 at the company's Taipei headquarters, will be for research-and-development and next-generation technologies.

Earlier this month, Tokyo-based SoftBank unveiled its emotion-reading robot called Pepper, which will be manufactured by Foxconn. Musk told Tesla shareholders his company is increasing cooperation with Foxconn, and Gou said Foxconn makes touch screens for Tesla cars.

"There's some very promising potential collaboration with Foxconn," Musk said. "We do feel that with potential alliances like Foxconn, we could potentially expand our production faster than would otherwise be the case."