Apple's supplier Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd said on Friday it plans to invest $40 million in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania as the company tries to expand beyond the low-margin contract business. The company said it will invest $30 million in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, over the next two years to build a supply chain and will invest $10 million to jointly develop manufacturing automation (robotics) with Carnegie Mellon University.

The Taiwanese company, better known by the trading name Foxconn, said earlier this month it was considering building a plant in Arizona.

Foxconn has also come under a spotlight over labor unrest in its Chinese plants. At least 13 workers in China died in 2010 in apparent suicides, which activists blamed on tough working conditions.