Foxconn, best known for assembling Apple’s iPhones and iPads, is launching an investment fund to support startups focused on developing new kinds of wearable computers, Bloomberg reports.
Foxconn unit Syntrend Creative Park will administer the $6.8 million fund and select candidates for trial in the first quarter of the new year, Bloomberg reported, citing unidentified sources. However, an associated incubator that will provide offices and advisory services for startups is not expected to be operational until the end of the next year.
CNET has contacted Foxconn for comment and will update this report when we learn more.
Foxconn, which has also produced consumer electronics for Microsoft, Dell, and Sony, apparently has aspirations beyond manufacturing for other companies. Just a month after reportedly receiving 1,000 orders for the much-rumored Apple smartwatch as a trial run, the Taiwanese company demoed a smartwatch at a shareholders meeting this summer that can wirelessly connect to an iPhone to display incoming phone calls and Facebook posts.