Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Wednesday said it is deepening its partnerships with automotive chip supplier NXP Semiconductors NV to adopt more chips and technologies in its next generation of electric vehicle (EV) development.
Hon Hai said it has adopted NXP chips in its first electric sedan, dubbed Model C, and plans to use more chips in two new electric models to be unveiled in October.
Hon Hai said it would ramp up production of the Model C in Taiwan in the first half of next year.
Photo: Fang Wei-jie, Taipei Times
Hon Hai’s EVs are developed by Foxtron Vehicles Technologies Co (鴻華先進), a joint venture between Hon Hai and Yulon Motor Co (裕隆汽車).
Hon Hai, the world’s largest iPhone maker, on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding with NXP Semiconductors to jointly develop platforms for a new generation of smart-connected vehicles.
The strategic partnership is to involve a broad suite of applications that includes more than 10 automotive products in its first stage, and is soon to begin development, the company said. That is different from NXP’s cooperation with Foxconn Industrial Internet Co Ltd (富士康工業互聯網) in developing smart cockpit solutions.
The collaboration between Hon Hai and NXP is also to include next-generation platforms such as cybersecurity, connectivity using the latest NXP S32 domain, and vehicle networking control, while also advancing secure car access with Bluetooth Low Energy and ultra-wideband, Hon Hai and NXP said in a joint statement.
NXP has also joined the MIH electric vehicle platform, an open platform initiated by Hon Hai.
Hon Hai aims to duplicate Taiwan’s success in the electronics sector in its efforts to build EVs, by swiftly integrating new technologies to introduce new hardware and other products, Hon Hai chief product officer Jerry Hsiao (蕭才祐) told reporters on the sidelines of a news conference in Taipei on Wednesday.
“The cooperation with NXP will allow us to engage in the development of new technologies and new solutions in the early stage of the collaboration, leading to shorter time-to-market,’ Hsiao said.
Such partnerships are crucial in developing next-generation vehicles, given that an open ecosystem significantly reduces manufacturing costs and shrinks time to market, he said.
That is different from conventional practice in the auto industry, where automakers operate their own closed supply chains, he added.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts