PC vendor Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) yesterday said it expects closer collaboration with Nvidia Corp, after the latter announced plans to build its new Taiwan office in the Beitou-Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區) in Taipei.
However, the company hopes Nvidia would not poach its talent as the artificial intelligence (AI) chip company is “too attractive,” Asustek chairman Jonney Shih (施崇棠) told reporters after its annual shareholders’ meeting.
Shih also told shareholders that the company expects continued growth in server business this year, after revenue in the segment last year increased fivefold from a year earlier.
Photo: Vanessa Cho, Taipei Times
Earlier this month, the company projected that servers would contribute about 15 percent of its revenue this year.
Shih described the current AI trend as “the poor man’s Chinese kung fu,” referring to the emergence of cost-efficient AI models developed in China that enable effective and resource-saving applications.
Shih took mixture-of-experts models as an example, saying that they allow training and inferencing with relatively few parameters, helping to spur the development of smaller AI applications and launching a new industrial revolution.
AI is driving the revolution by directly producing intelligence, a process now called an “AI factory” or “intelligence manufacturing,” and which is expected to make the production process entirely autonomous, he said.
The scale and impact of AI are comparable to the revolution sparked by the invention of computers, which are now able to produce intelligence and regarded as “brains,” he said.
“This is an opportunity that you can only expect once in 100 years,” he said.
In the robotics sector, Shih said Asustek developed its Zenbo robot in the early stages, but faced challenges due to insufficient intelligence.
However, with the advancement of artificial general intelligence, language can now function as a semiotic system to enable general intelligence in AI, making the development of humanoid robots more viable, he said.
As for the potential impact of tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump, Shih said the US president is highly “unpredictable,” and manufacturers should expect to face short-term pain.
Asustek’s key strategic goals this year include advancing AI-enabled products and services, such as PCs, servers, edge AI and AI of things applications, Shih said.
Shareholders yesterday approved the company’s plan to distribute a cash dividend of NT$34 per share, the highest in three years.
The company’s revenue last year grew 22 percent year-on-year to NT$587.1 billion (US$19.63 billion) and net profit surged 97 percent to NT$31.4 billion, or earnings per share of NT$42.
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