- Nvidia and Foxconn collaborating to construct AI factories powered by Nvidia's chips
- Factories will train AI models for autonomous cars, robots, natural language processing
- Nvidia stock up 3X in 2023, hitting $1 trillion market cap as AI chip leader
October 19, 2023: Nvidia, the world’s most valuable chip company, has announced a partnership with Foxconn, the manufacturer of Apple’s iPhones, to construct new “AI factories” – data centers that will utilize Nvidia’s cutting-edge chips to enable a wide range of artificial intelligence applications.
The announcement was made jointly by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Foxconn chairman Young Liu during Foxconn’s annual tech showcase event in Taipei.
“A new type of manufacturing has emerged – the production of intelligence and the data centers that produce it are AI factories,” said Huang, according to Reuters.
The AI factories will harness the power of Nvidia’s advanced chips to train autonomous vehicles, develop robotics platforms, and run large language models.
Huang touted Foxconn’s expertise and global scale to build these AI factories internationally.
Liu stated that Foxconn aims to “convert itself from a manufacturing service company to a platform solution company,” citing smart cities and smart manufacturing as other use cases for the AI factories beyond autonomous vehicles.
The partnership comes on the heels of new export restrictions announced by Washington that will block Nvidia’s sales of two high-end AI chips – the A800 and H800 – specifically designed for the Chinese market.
However, Nvidia and Foxconn are forging ahead with their collaboration, citing surging demand for AI computing capabilities.
Thanks to its chips powering leading-edge AI applications, Nvidia’s stock market value has ballooned to over $1 trillion this year, making it the fifth publicly traded U.S. company to join the “Trillion Dollar Club” along with Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Amazon.
Nvidia’s share price has more than tripled in 2023. Meanwhile, Foxconn has been working to diversify its business beyond electronics manufacturing and replicate its success with assembling smartphones and PCs in new areas like electric vehicles.
In January, Foxconn and Nvidia had already announced a partnership to develop autonomous vehicle platforms, with Foxconn manufacturing electronic control units using Nvidia’s AI chips.
The new AI factories will represent a deepening of this relationship as Foxconn transitions to becoming a platform solutions provider.
Nvidia’s powerful data center chips will enable Foxconn to move into developing AI-based solutions for manufacturing, healthcare, robotics, and urban infrastructure.
