Hon Hai teams up with Nvidia to develop humanoid robots

Taipei, Jan. 4 (CNA) Taiwan-based manufacturing giant Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. is partnering with American artificial intelligence chip designer Nvidia Corp. to develop humanoid robots in the current artificial intelligence boom.

Speaking with reporters on the sidelines of the Kaohsiung Smart City annual meeting held on Friday, Hon Hai Chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) said his company is working with Nvidia by adopting the American chip designer's software technologies and hardware platforms to develop human-like robots in the southern Taiwanese city.

As iPhone assembler Hon Hai has been intensifying efforts in recent years to diversify its product portfolio, Liu said the company has set sights on Kaohsiung to launch humanoid robot services.

Hon Hai has already introduced non-humanoid robots as part of its production lines, using Nvidia's technologies. Local media cited Liu as saying the company is planning to introduce humanoid robots to other services including the healthcare industry.

Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn on the global markets, and Nvidia have become business partners in recent years. The Taiwanese company rolls out AI servers powered by the U.S. firm's chips.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) has touted robots will become the next wave of AI development, predicting that upcoming innovations will be dominated by humanoid robots and self-driving cars.

Nvidia provides software and hardware for robot manufacturing as "everything is going to be robotic," Huang said.

While Hon Hai is working with Kaohsiung in smart city development, Liu said the company is also planning to cooperate with the cities of Taipei and Keelung in this field.

He said there is great potential for cooperation in the development of apps used in smartphones.

In the future, Liu said, Hon Hai will 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 artificial intelligence using its own infrastructure, data, workforce and business networks.

Meanwhile, Liu said he forecast Hon Hai's consolidated sales will top NT$7 trillion (US$213 billion) in 2025 on the back of strong global demand for AI applications.

In the first 11 months of last year, Hon Hai reported consolidated sales of NT$6.21 trillion, up 8.87 percent from a year earlier, and more than the NT$6.16 trillion in revenue posted for 2023 as a whole.

AI servers accounted for more than 40 percent of Hon Hai's server revenue in the first three quarters of 2024, with its cloud and networking division making up more than 30 percent of the company's total revenue.

Due to robust global demand, AI servers are forecast to make up 50 percent of Hon Hai's server sales in 2025 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, according to Hon Hai.