Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer, has reportedly won an order to make wireless earphones for Apple, as well as planning to establish a new factory in India. The deal means that for the first time, Foxconn will become an AirPod supplier and indicates efforts by Apple’s main manufacturer to further diversify manufacturing away from China. AirPods are currently manufactured by several Chinese suppliers.

The investment into the new plant location in Telangana state is anticipated to be over $200 million according to sources close to the situation. It remains unclear how much revenue Foxconn would derive from this specific order. However, despite the profits on manufacturing AirPods being relatively low, Foxconn officials ultimately decided that it was worth going ahead with this deal due to their desire “to reinforce engagement” with Apple.

The reason behind setting up production exclusively in India was at the request of Apple, according to sources familiar with negotiations between the two companies.

A subsidiary of Foxconn plans on starting construction of a new facility later this year and anticipates production beginning by late 2024 at the very earliest.

Shares in Foxconn Interconnect Technology Ltd increased almost 9% after news about its deal with Apple first broke out while shares in Foxconn itself rose around 0.5%. Meanwhile, Taipei’s benchmark index fell by around 1.1%.

Apple has previously asked several manufacturers including Foxconn about making AirPod products within India although details surrounding these arrangements have not been made public knowledge until now.

Moving production away from China minimizes disruption caused by strict COVID-19 lockdown measures that took place last year and also avoids any issues brought about by escalating trade tensions between Washington D.C. and Beijing.

According to a recent article by The Hustle, it seems that relying on autonomous robots powered by artificial intelligence (AI) could be the next big thing, particularly when it comes to replacing human CEOs. The report highlights how chief executives at well-established firms often focus on measuring business growth rather than performing tasks that can’t be automated.

The current pay ratio disparity in top corporation is staggering. In fact, CEOs earn almost 400 times more than an average employee who work for them, as per the Economic Policy Institute’s (EPI), findings. Data from 2021 suggests Amazon CEO Andrew Jassy, earned $213 million or collectively the same as 6,474 average Amazon employees.

But it’s not just about money; many under-performing CEOs earn extravagantly high salaries even without delivering consistent results. Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav was paid $247 million but went on to become “worst CEO of 2022”.

While AI bots certainly won’t be able to replace all human roles of a CEO yet – they’re not much for company golf courses and general schmoozing – outsourcing most of their relatively mundane tasks could create room for trimming down organizations’ wage bills.

In conclusion, while we may not be in favour of automating every single job out there into robotic hands; if most average human underlings are already being treated like automated machines by their chief execs anyway then maybe it only makes sense that they finally get replaced by similar fate – especially when they’re getting such high salaries with little contribution towards improving growth rate.

Japanese entertainment company Bandai Namco Entertainment has invested in DeepMotion, based in the US, and SuperGaming, based in India. The investments were made by the firm’s Bandai Namco Entertainment 021 Fund, which was launched on April 1st to support early-stage to middle-stage startups across industries related to gaming and toys worldwide. The investments are aimed at enhancing the company’s intellectual property metaverse appeal and expanding its business reach beyond traditional gaming products.

The US-based DeepMotion is developing AI-based automatic motion recognition technology that can capture digital avatars using smartphones. The software-as-a-service (SaaS) company is also creating its own motion generation service that leverages AI and machine learning techniques plus physics simulations for lifelike movement of digital humans. Through this investment, Bandai Namco aims to incorporate DeepMotion’s tech and expertise on motion generation to create new forms of entertainment utilising motion data.

Indian game development firm SuperGaming creates and publishes game applications for smartphones while also providing a proprietary platform for game developers. With the second investment, Bandai Namco aims to deepen its understanding of Asia’s rapidly growing market while leveraging IP advertising services offered by the startup.

The fund will target companies focused on creating innovative products utilising such technologies as VR/AR/xR or blockchain. More specifically, it aims to invest in startups providing entertainment-related products and services utilising these next-generation technologies as well as those engaged in metaverse/Web3 businesses.

Investments into other game-related funds are being considered as part of possible future plans.