Nvidia and Hon Hai Technology Group (Foxconn) outlined a broad partnership to create so-called "AI factories" that will be based on Nvidia GPUs to transform data into AI models and tokens. The two companies will also develop systems for autonomous vehicles and robots.
If you boil down the Nvidia and Foxconn announcements, AI factories and other efforts will highlight what's possible on the Nvidia platforms. In other words, Nvidia's efforts with Foxconn rhyme with what Microsoft and Google have done with Surface and Pixel, respectively. Nvidia with Foxconn will have a showcase for its accelerated computing platforms, GH200 Grace Hopper Superchip and AI Enterprise software. The Foxconn partnership will enable Nvidia to show the art of the possible with standardization on its stack.
The announcement was made by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang at Hon Hai Tech Day. The companies outlined electric vehicle plans on Nvidia's platform separately. Related:
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Foxconn will also help Nvidia seed the market for its Drive Hyperion 9 autonomous vehicle platform and Drive Thor automotive system on a chip, Isaac autonomous mobile robot system and Metropolis video analytics platform for smart cities. Foxconn plans to design custom systems for all of Nvidia's products.
According to the companies, Foxconn's AI factory based on Nvidia's platform will enable it to train models for workflows and run simulations before building physical systems. In theory, these simulations would boost Foxconn's efficiency and operating margins.
Constellation Research analyst Holger Mueller said the Foxconn and Nvidia partnership could boost scale for AI workloads in manufacturing and OEM settings. He said:
"A few years back the future of Nvidia was not clear as the cloud vendors were using proprietary approaches to run AI. That is all history with Nvidia GPUs being added in all public cloud data centers across the world. Nvidia is now ready to partner with manufacturing and OEM providers – all to put out more of its platforms. The partnership with Foxconn is to be seen in this light – Foxconn standardizes Nvidia platforms and OEMs them to its customers. If Nvidia succeeds with this move it will increase footprint, relevance and likely growth by magnitudes."
