Foxconn to Replace Half a Million Employees with Robots

Taiwan’s IT giant Foxconn announced it plans to replace up to half a million human workers with robots in the next three years. This comes after the company has been troubled with a series of employee suicides.

Foxconn is currently the world’s largest manufacturer of computer components— assembling products for Apple, Sony and Nokia.

Currently ten thousand robots paint, weld and assemble things for Foxconn. The company announced at an event in Shenzhen, they plan to increase that number to 300-thousand next year and to one million in 2014.

Foxconn spokesmen could not be reached for comment.

Last year, a total of at least 14 Foxconn employees committed suicide, mostly in the company’s plant in China’s southern city of Shenzhen. Activists blame Foxconn for poor working conditions.