Nvidia, Foxconn Partner Up To Build AI Data Centres

Two big players in their respective tech fields are joining together to “develop a new class of data centres”.

Nvidia announced that it is collaborating with Hon Hai Technology Group (more commonly known as Foxconn) to “accelerate the AI industrial revolution.” The new class of data centres will use Nvidia chips and software, and will be built by Foxconn.

GPU titan Nvidia has been blessed in recent years thanks to the surge in demand for GPUs during the Covid-19 pandemic, and now the surge in demand for chips suitable for AI tasks.

AI data centres

This helped Nvidia in May to surpass $1 trillion (£810bn) in market capitalisation as its stock surged amid the ongoing AI boom among the data centre segment.

The two firms announced that Foxconn will “integrate Nvidia technology to develop a new class of data centres powering a wide range of applications – including digitalisation of manufacturing and inspection workflows, development of AI-powered electric vehicle and robotics platforms, and a growing number of language-based generative AI services.”

The partnership between the two firms was announced in a fireside chat with Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang and Foxconn Chairman and CEO Young Liu at Hon Hai Tech Day, in Taipei.

They said the collaboration starts with the creation of AI factories – an Nvidia GPU computing infrastructure specially built for processing, refining and transforming vast amounts of data into valuable AI models and tokens – based on the Nvidia accelerated computing platform, including the latest Nvidia GH200 Grace Hopper Superchip and Nvidia AI Enterprise software.

“Most importantly, Nvidia and Foxconn are building these factories together. We will be helping the whole industry move much faster into the new AI era,” said Foxconn Chairman and CEO Young Liu.

“A new type of manufacturing has emerged – the production of intelligence. And the data centres that produce it are AI factories,” said Jensen Huang. “Foxconn, the world’s largest manufacturer, has the expertise and scale to build AI factories globally. We are delighted to expand our decade-long partnership with Foxconn to accelerate the AI industrial revolution.”

Working closely with Nvidia, Foxconn is expected to build a large number of systems based on Nvidia CPUs and GPUs including its cutting-edge GH200 superchip that it is barred from selling in China.

Electric vehicles

The development comes as Foxconn, which is perhaps best known as the largest manufacturer of Apple iPhones, is seeking to expand into making electric vehicles for other companies.

Foxconn has made only a handful of EV models so far, wants to capture about 5 percent of the global electric vehicle market over the next few years.

It intends for EV production to be regionalised, with Foxconn planning car factories in the US state of Ohio, Thailand, Indonesia and perhaps India.

To this end, in January, Foxconn and Nvidia announced a partnership to develop autonomous vehicle platforms, in which Foxconn would manufacture electronic control units (ECUs) for cars based on Nvidia’s DRIVE Orin chip to sell to the global market.