Nvidia and iPhone maker Foxconn to build ‘AI factories’

Foxconn, the business that makes iPhones, and Nvidia, the most valuable semiconductor company in the world, are collaborating to construct “AI factories”.

According to the companies, it’s a novel type of data center that powers a “wide range” of applications with Nvidia chips.

These include big language models, robotics platforms, and self-driving car training.

In a blow to Nvidia, it coincides with the US’s announcement that it intends to stop exporting more sophisticated semiconductors to China.

The business claims that the most recent export limitations, which Washington revealed this week, will prevent sales of the A800 and H800, two high-end AI chips that Nvidia developed for the Chinese market.

At Foxconn’s annual tech expo in Taipei on Wednesday, Young Liu, the chairman of Foxconn, and Jensen Huang, the chief executive of Nvidia, who was born in Taiwan, shared a stage.

According to Reuters, Mr. Huang stated that “a new type of manufacturing has emerged – the production of intelligence and the data centers that produce it are AI factories.” He also stated that Foxconn had the experience and capacity to build these factories all over the world.

Additionally, Mr. Liu stated that Foxconn is attempting to “transform itself from a manufacturing service company to a platform solution company,” listing intelligent manufacturing and smart cities as further uses for AI factories.

Nvidia’s shares have more than tripled in value this year, and the company’s advanced chips are being used in AI applications, which has increased the company’s stock market worth to over $1 trillion.

Along with Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Amazon, it became the fifth publicly traded US corporation to become a member of the prestigious “Trillion dollar club” as a result.

Concurrently, Foxconn, the company responsible for producing more than half of all Apple goods worldwide, has been attempting to broaden its line of business and duplicate its achievements in the assembly of smartphones and PCs.

Mr. Liu told the BBC in an exclusive interview in June that the industry’s growth in the ensuing decades will be driven by electric cars (EVs).

An agreement to develop autonomous vehicle platforms was made public in January by Foxconn and Nvidia. As part of this agreement, Foxconn will produce electronic control units for automobiles that are built using Nvidia chips.

Read more at News Intercept:

Nvidia hit as China cut off from more advanced chips