Foxconn and Nvidia Partner to Construct Artificial Intelligence Facilities

TAIPEI: Taiwan’s Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics maker, is building a new kind of data center using Nvidia chips and software for a variety of applications including self-driving cars, the companies said on Wednesday.

Foxconn Chairman Liu Young-way and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang shared the stage at Foxconn’s annual technology showcase in Taipei and said their companies would build these “AI factories” together.

“A new type of manufacturing has emerged — intelligence manufacturing. And the data centers that produce it are AI factories,” Huang said, adding that Foxconn had the expertise and scale to build them globally.

Demonstrating a hand-drawn sketch, wearing his signature black leather jacket, Huang explained how “AI factories” can continuously receive and process data from autonomous electric vehicles to make them smarter.

“This car will of course go through life experience and collect more data. The data would go to the AI factory. The AI factory would improve the software and update the entire AI fleet,” said the Taiwanese-born Huang. “In the future, every company, every industry will have artificial intelligence factories.”

Nvidia, the world’s most valuable chip company, said in a statement that AI factories would use its chips and software, including its high-end GH200 superchip, which is banned from sale in China.

The announcement came after Nvidia said on Tuesday that new U.S. export restrictions would also block sales of two more powerful high-end AI chips it created for the Chinese market, as well as one of its top-of-the-line gaming chips.

Shares of Nvidia are set to triple in 2023, giving the company a market value of more than $1 trillion, fueled by enthusiasm for the key role the company’s chips will play in artificial intelligence applications.

Foxconn, the largest supplier of Apple’s iPhones, is looking to replicate its success in assembling personal computers and smartphones as it expands into making electric vehicles for other companies.

In January, Foxconn and Nvidia announced a partnership to develop autonomous vehicle platforms, in which Foxconn would manufacture electronic control units (ECUs) for cars based on Nvidia’s DRIVE Orin chip to sell to the global market.

Liu, standing next to Huang, said Foxconn is “trying to transform itself from a manufacturing services company to a platform solutions company,” citing smart cities and smart manufacturing as other applications for AI factories.

Foxconn on Wednesday unveiled a new electric cargo truck called the Model N, the sixth prototype in its electric car push that has set ambitious goals but has so far received only limited orders.

Jun Seki, head of Foxconn’s electric car business, said the company spoke to 14 potential customers without naming them and sees India and Japan as promising countries for electric car development.

Foxconn initially aims for 5% of the global electric car market and accounts for $33 billion in revenue from electric car and component manufacturing by 2025. Foxconn’s aggressive long-term goal is to manufacture almost half of the world’s electric cars.

Foxconn’s Tech Day is being held on the birthday of its billionaire founder Terry Gou, who stepped down as the company’s CEO in 2019.

He is now running as an independent candidate in Taiwan’s presidential election in January and did not appear at the event, unlike last year when he drove a prototype EV on stage.