The world’s most valuable chip company Nvidia and iPhone maker Foxconn are joining forces to build so-called “AI factories”.
Nvidia and Foxconn are teaming up to create a novel kind of data center powered by Nvidia chips, designed to support a broad range of applications. These applications include the training of autonomous vehicles, robotics platforms, and the operation of large language models. This collaboration comes amid the U.S. government’s recent announcement of plans to restrict advanced chip exports to China, posing a challenge for Nvidia.
According to Nvidia, the new export restrictions will prohibit the sale of two high-end artificial intelligence chips, A800 and H800, specifically developed for the Chinese market. Nvidia’s CEO, Jensen Huang, and Foxconn’s chairman, Young Liu, made this joint announcement at Foxconn’s annual tech showcase in Taipei. Huang referred to the emerging trend of manufacturing intelligence, highlighting that the data centers powering it are essentially AI factories. He emphasized Foxconn’s capability and scale to establish these factories on a global scale.
Liu expressed Foxconn’s ambition to transform from a manufacturing service company into a platform solution company, envisioning applications beyond AI factories, such as smart cities and smart manufacturing. The strategic use of Nvidia’s advanced chips in AI applications has significantly boosted Nvidia’s market value, surpassing $1 trillion and making it the fifth U.S. company to join the “Trillion dollar club,” alongside Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Amazon.
Simultaneously, Foxconn, known for producing over half of the world’s Apple products, is diversifying its business. In a June interview with the BBC, Liu highlighted electric vehicles (EVs) as a key growth driver for the company in the coming decades. The partnership between Foxconn and Nvidia, announced in January, focuses on developing autonomous vehicle platforms, with Foxconn handling the manufacturing of electronic control units based on Nvidia’s chips.
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