Chairman of Foxconn Younger Liu delivers a speech all the plot in which by the Hon Hai Tech Day in Taipei on Oct. 18, 2023.
I-hwa Cheng | AFP | Getty Photos
The roar in company investment into artificial intelligence infrastructure unruffled has some manner to ride as spacious language items are continuing to evolve, in response to the CEO of Foxconna key vendor to Apple.
Talking with CNBC’s Emily Tan, Chief Executive and Chairman of Foxconn Younger Liu, mentioned that the AI roar “still has some time to go” as superior language items from the likes of OpenAI have gotten increasingly extra reasonable with every contemporary iteration that comes out.
He mentioned that the usual movement in the tech industry this day is trending in direction of a invent of AI that is as reasonable — if no longer extra reasonable — than participants. This invent of AI is referred to in the industry as “AGI,” or Synthetic Customary Intelligence.
“We … heard about AGI, and we’ll talk about different levels of intelligence. If you divide [intelligence] into four different levels, we’re at level two. There’s still level three and level four to go,” Liu suggested CNBC in an interview that aired Tuesday.
OpenAI is one in every of the leading firms pushing for AGI. Sam Altman, CEO of the Microsoft-backed startup, has beforehand mentioned AGI would possibly be developed in the “reasonably close-ish future,” on the opposite hand he’s moreover mentioned he thinks this might per chance well per chance “change jobs much less than we all think.”
The firm, which released its upgraded GPT-4o model this summer season, published final week that it had raised $6.6 billion at a $157 billion valuation. OpenAI is unruffled working in direction of releasing its next-technology LLM, GPT-5, but it and not using a doubt’s but to share timing on when the contemporary language model will start.
Liu mentioned that growth in direction of increasingly extra reasonable AI can easiest be a upright tell for the AI server industry, which has been a key boon to Foxconn’s roar this year.
“I think for the AI server industry, I think we still have some time to grow,” Liu added. “With the AGI capability growing, the age [of] AI devices will be another industry we should watch carefully.”
Precise inquire of for Nvidia’s Blackwell
Foxconn, which trades as Hon Hai in the neighborhood in China and Taiwan, is the field’s greatest contract producer for the electronics industry. The firm produces and assembles Apple products, including about two out of every three iPhones.
On Saturday, Foxconn mentioned that it reported greater-than-anticipated sales figures. The firm mentioned its revenues got here in at 1.85 trillion Taiwanese dollars ($57.5 billion) in the September quarter, up 20.2% year-over-year. That “exceeded the company’s original expectations of significant growth,” in response to Foxconn.
The compile performance got here off the support of heightened inquire of for AI servers, which Foxconn manufactures for several major global tech giants, including AmazonGoogleMicrosoftand Nvidia.
The firm is currently heading in the staunch route to ship servers in response to Nvidia’s next-technology Blackwell GPU (graphics processing unit), an superior AI superchip, in the fourth quarter of 2024, Liu suggested CNBC. Blackwell is moreover identified under the emblem name GB200.
Asked in regards to the repeat book for Blackwell servers, Liu mentioned that inquire of for the chip is “much better than we thought,” including that the firm is building contemporary factories in Mexico to support provider outsized inquire of for the product.
His comments tally with what Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has mentioned about inquire of for the Blackwell product beforehand. Ultimate week, Huang suggested CNBC’s “Closing Bell Overtime” that inquire of for Blackwell become “insane.”
“Everybody wants to have the most and everybody wants to be first,” Huang mentioned all the plot in which by the interview, which aired final Wednesday.
Blackwell, anticipated to rate between $30,000 and $40,000 per unit, is in sizzling inquire of from firms esteem OpenAI, Microsoft, Meta and other firms building AI records facilities to energy products esteem ChatGPT and Copilot.
AI devices the next roar opportunity
Previous producing IT infrastructure for cloud-based fully AI functions esteem ChatGPT, Foxconn is moreover powering the contemporary iPhone 16, which comes with potentially the latest generative AI points Apple hopes will breathe contemporary existence into the smartphone industry.
Foxconn’s Liu mentioned that “on-device” AI — where records is processed at as soon as on a mobile procedure, rather than a cloud or server — represents the next broad roar opportunity for the firm.
“I think the genAI-related device will be the next way to grow,” Liu suggested CNBC. “Currently, we’re seeing this on the cloud side. You see that genAI cloud equipment was very much booming.”
“But in the next phase, what we’re seeing will be the Gen AI devices,” he added. “We think that will be the next big way to boom … We have very high hopes on those devices.”
Accumulated, it is rate noting even when that Apple hasn’t but released its AI procedure, called Apple Intelligence, on iPhone. The firm is anticipated to start Apple Intelligence to the final public in a beta model later this tumble as section of a up to date procedure replace.
Smartphone makers are hoping for a up to date technology of exact roar for the smartphone industryidentified as a “supercycle,” on the support of the AI points they’re cramming into their more moderen handsets. Previous Apple, SamsungGoogle and Huawei spinoff Honor like all long gone sizable on AI with their contemporary cell phone launches.
Smartphone sales like been gaining momentum this year after several consecutive years of declines. Within the 2d quarter of 2024, smartphone shipments climbed 6.5% year-over-year to 285.4 million items, in response to preliminary records from IDC — their fourth straight quarter of roar.
