News was announced today by Foxconn chief executive Terry Gou at a shareholder meeting. A contractor for Apple, Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo, Foxconn first announced plans to “replace factory workers with robots” two years ago, but the process was severely delayed because of the “high cost of robot deployment.”
The robots are said to cost as much as $25,000 each. The move to replace some factory workers with robots follows Foxconn’s lengthy history of worker abuse. The poor conditions have sparked protests, and led Apple to fund improved working conditions in Foxconn factories.