BENGALURU (Reuters) -Apple Inc supplier Foxconn will invest $500 million to set up manufacturing plants in the southern Indian state of Telangana, the state's IT minister said on Monday.

The investment will create 25,000 jobs in the first phase, K. T. Rama Rao said in a tweet.

Reuters in March reported that Foxconn had won an order to make AirPods for Apple and planned to build a factory in India to manufacture the products.

Apple has been shifting production away from China, where prior COVID restrictions disrupted the manufacturing of new iPhones and other devices. The tech company is also looking to avoid a hit to its business due to tensions between Beijing and Washington.

Foxconn in late March received approval from the Karnataka government for a $968 million investment in the state.

(Reporting by Chris Thomas and Varun Vyas in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza and Sonia Cheema)