Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) is partnering with US artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp to develop humanoid robots, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) said on the sidelines of the Kaohsiung Smart City meeting on Friday.
The company is adopting Nvidia’s software technologies and hardware platforms to develop human-like robots and has set its sights on Kaohsiung to launch humanoid robot services, Liu said.
Hon Hai has already introduced non-humanoid robots as part of its production lines, using Nvidia’s technologies.
Photo: CNA
Local media cited Liu as saying the company is planning to introduce humanoid robots to other services, including the healthcare industry.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) has said that robots would become the next wave of AI development, predicting that upcoming innovations would be dominated by humanoid robots and self-driving cars.
While Hon Hai is working with Kaohsiung in smart city development, Liu said the company is also planning to cooperate with Taipei and Keelung governments in this field.
Hon Hai would integrate resources to allow software developers to gain access to its efforts in smart city development to establish an environment of sovereign AI, which refers to a nation’s capabilities to produce AI using its own infrastructure, data, workforce and business networks, Liu said.
Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), is expected to see consolidated sales top NT$7 trillion (US$212.7 billion) this year on the back of strong global demand for AI applications, Liu said.
Hon Hai yesterday reported record consolidated sales of NT$6.86 trillion for last year, up 11.37 percent from a year earlier, and more than the NT$6.16 trillion in revenue posted for 2023 as a whole.
It came as the company reported better-than-expected sales growth in the final quarter of last year as the AI infrastructure buildout continued apace.
The company's sales over the past three months were NT$2.13 trillion, up 15.17 percent year-on-year, exceeding analyst expectations for a 13 percent rise.
Last month's sales rose 42.31 percent to NT$654.83 billion, also beating analysts' estimates, which the company attributed to a small shipment of GB200 servers powered by Nvidia's advanced Blackwell graphics processing units.
Hon Hai said in a statement that it expects mass production of AI servers to begin later this month and projects significant sales growth for the first quarter of this year.
Due to robust global demand, AI servers are forecast to make up 50 percent of Hon Hai’s server sales this year, and shipments of AI servers are likely to grow from quarter to quarter to become the most important driver of the company’s sales growth, it said.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
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