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NVIDIA announced that it is collaborating with Hon Hai Technology Group (Foxconn) to accelerate the AI industrial change. Foxconn will integrate NVIDIA technology to develop a new class of data centers 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 (artificial intelligence) services.
During a fireside chat at Hon Hai Tech Day in Taipei, NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang and Foxconn chairman and CEO Young Liu announced that the collaboration between NVIDIA and Foxconn primarily focuses on the establishment of AI factories. These factories will be equipped with the NVIDIA GPU computing infrastructure, including the latest NVIDIA GH200 Grace Hopper Superchip and NVIDIA AI Enterprise software, facilitating the processing and refinement of extensive data into valuable AI models and tokens.
Foxconn is also developing its smart solution platforms based on NVIDIA technologies:
- Foxconn Smart EV will be built on NVIDIA DRIVE Hyperion 9, a next-generation platform for autonomous automotive fleets, powered by NVIDIA DRIVE Thor, its automotive systems-on-a-chip.
- Foxconn Smart Manufacturing robotic systems will be built on the NVIDIA Isaac autonomous mobile robot platform.
- Foxconn Smart City will incorporate the NVIDIA Metropolis intelligent video analytics platform.
“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,” says Foxconn’s Liu.
“A new type of manufacturing has emerged — the production of intelligence. And the data centers that produce it are AI factories,” according to NVIDIA’s 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.”
Enabling Foxconn customers to build AI data factories
Working closely with NVIDIA, Foxconn is expected to build many systems based on NVIDIA CPUs (central processing units), GPUs (graphics processing units), and networking for its global customer base, which is looking to create and operate its own AI factories, optimised with NVIDIA AI Enterprise software.
Among the key NVIDIA technologies Foxconn is using to create these custom designs are NVIDIA HGX reference designs featuring eight NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPUs per system, NVIDIA GH200 Superchips, NVIDIA OVX reference designs, and NVIDIA networking.
With these systems, Foxconn customers can leverage NVIDIA accelerated computing to deliver generative AI services as well as use simulation to speed up the training of autonomous machines, including industrial robots and self-driving cars.
Foxconn eyes potential AI factory
In addition to equipping its customers with NVIDIA technology-powered AI factories, Foxconn is eyeing its own that will tap into the NVIDIA Omniverse platform and Isaac and Metropolis frameworks to meet the electronics industry’s strict production and quality standards.
Advances in edge AI and simulation are enabling the deployment of autonomous mobile robots that can travel several miles a day and industrial robots for assembling components, applying coatings, packaging, and performing quality inspections.
An AI factory with these NVIDIA platforms can give Foxconn the ability to accomplish AI training and inference, enhance factory workflows, and run simulations in the virtual world before deployment in the physical world. Simulating the entire robotics and automation pipeline from end to end provides Foxconn with a path to operational efficiency gains, saving time and costs.
Developing safe, AI-powered EVs
Foxconn will also deliver a range of NVIDIA DRIVE solutions to global automakers, serving as a manufacturer of NVIDIA DRIVE Orin-based electronic control units (ECUs) today and scaling to NVIDIA DRIVE Thor-based ECUs.
As a contract manufacturer, Foxconn will offer automated and autonomous, AI-rich EVs featuring the upcoming NVIDIA DRIVE Hyperion 9 platform, which includes DRIVE Thor and a state-of-the-art sensor architecture. This will enable Foxconn and its automotive customers to realise a new era of functionally safe and secure software-defined cars.
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