By Wen-Yee Lee
TAIPEI, Oct 30 (Reuters) – Foxconn, the world’s biggest contract electronics manufacturer, on Friday flagged that a collaboration with leading US artificial intelligence developer OpenAI was in the works, though details were scant.
Foxconn Chairman Young Liu told reporters at the company’s annual event to showcase its technology that he had met OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman earlier in the day and there would be an announcement once details were confirmed.
Liu did not elaborate further. Any deal would build upon last year’s agreement between the two firms to work together on designing and engineering data-centre racks, components and other AI hardware.
Foxconn, formally called Hon Hai Precision Industry and Nvidia’s biggest AI server maker, is increasingly relying on AI infrastructure for growth.
While AI-sector stocks have been hit hard by concerns that relentless heavy investment is not sustainable amid climbing borrowing costs, Liu said the industry was not in a bubble and that Foxconn expects to maintain double-digit growth next year.
Foxconn has six factory buildings in Houston, Texas, where it manufactures AI servers for Nvidia, and sees a need for further expansion, Liu said.
The company said in August that its cloud and networking products segment, which includes AI servers, accounted for 51% of second-quarter revenue, exceeding 50% for the first time.
HUMANOID ROBOTS WORKING IN HOUSTON
Separately, Foxconn is making progress on plans to deploy humanoid robots at its Houston plant.
Brand Cheng, chairman of unit Foxconn Industrial Internet (FII), told Reuters on Friday that more than 10 humanoid robots had been deployed at its Texas facilities for internal use.
Foxconn plans to extend deployment beyond Texas, he added.
According to presentation materials seen by Reuters, FII introduced two wheeled models in October — one that lifts things vertically and one that can bend at the waist for assembly as well as loading and unloading tasks.
The unit is developing AI models for humanoid robots based on Nvidia’s GR00T foundation model.
(Reporting by Wen-Yee Lee; Writing by Eduardo Baptista; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
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