Foxconn, Taiwan’s tech giant, and Nvidia, US hardware leader, said on Wednesday that they would team up to create “AI factories”, powerful data processing centers that would drive the manufacturing of next-generation products such as electric cars.
The world’s biggest contract electronics maker, Foxconn — officially known as Hon Hai Technology Group — already plays a lynchpin role in forming gadgets for top global brands, including Apple’s iPhone.
But it has ambitions to diversify beyond electronics assembly — even assuming the competitive but rapidly extending electric vehicle business by disclosing concept cars on its “Hon Hai Tech Day” in past years.
Chairman Young Liu opened the annual event this year with Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang to introduce a “new class of data centers powering a broad range of applications.”
Nvidia made its name developing graphics processing units (GPUs), a powerful chip technology that began as the backbone of modern video games — but has now become a vital pillar in the rapid expansion of generative AI.
Liu announced onstage with Huang, “Together we will be helping the whole industry move much faster into the new AI era.”
According to Nvidia, the “factories” would include “digitalization of manufacturing and inspection workflows, growth of AI-powered electric vehicle and robotics platforms, and a growing number of language-based generative AI services.”
Huang said Foxconn “has the expertise and scale to build AI factories globally.”
If successful, Foxconn’s customers could utilize these systems to provide generative AI services and use simulation to train autonomous machines like industrial robots and self-driving cars.
The announcement on Wednesday came a day after the United States disclosed tightening curbs on exports of advanced chips to China — the latest action to stop Beijing’s advances in cutting-edge tech, noticed by Washington as a national security threat.
The ban would hit Nvidia’s chips that had formerly gone to China — a major supplier base for many contract electronics manufacturers, including Foxconn — and sent the firm’s share price plunging on Wall Street on Tuesday.
The new rules by the US Department of Commerce may “require the company to transition certain operations out of one or more of the identified countries,” Silicon Valley-based Nvidia said.
