Foxconn chairman says AI investment boom ‘still has some time to go’ as language models evolve

The increase in company funding into synthetic judgement infrastructure nonetheless has some approach to walk as massive language fashions are proceeding to conform, in line with the CEO of Foxconn, a key provider to Apple.

Talking with GWN’s Emily Tan, Government and Chairman of Foxconn Younger Liu, mentioned that the AI increase “still has some time to go” as complicated language fashions from the likes of OpenAI are turning into increasingly more clever with every untouched iteration that comes out.

He mentioned that the overall motion within the tech trade these days is trending towards a mode of AI this is as clever — if no longer extra clever — than people. This kind of AI is referred to within the trade as “AGI,” or Synthetic Common Perception.

“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 advised GWN in an interview that aired Tuesday.

OpenAI is without doubt one of the chief corporations pushing for AGI. Sam Altman, CEO of the Microsoft-backed startup, has in the past mentioned AGI will probably be advanced within the “reasonably close-ish future,” then again he’s additionally mentioned he thinks it is going to “change jobs much less than we all think.”

The corporate, which excepted its upgraded GPT-4o style this summer time, detectable terminating past that it had raised $6.6 billion at a $157 billion valuation. OpenAI remains to be operating towards freeing its next-generation LLM, GPT-5, then again it’s but to proportion timing on when the untouched language style will creation.

Liu mentioned that move towards increasingly more clever AI can handiest be a excellent factor for the AI server trade, which has been a key boon to Foxconn’s enlargement this 12 months.

“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.”

Foxconn, which trades as Hon Hai in the community in China and Taiwan, is the sector’s biggest agreement producer for the electronics trade. The company produces and assembles Apple merchandise, together with about two out of each 3 iPhones.

On Saturday, Foxconn mentioned that it reported better-than-expected gross sales figures. The company mentioned its revenues got here in at 1.85 trillion Taiwanese greenbacks ($57.5 billion) within the September quarter, up 20.2% year-over-year. That “exceeded the company’s original expectations of significant growth,” in line with Foxconn.

The robust efficiency got here off the again of heightened call for for AI servers, which Foxconn manufactures for a number of primary world tech giants, together with Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Nvidia.

The corporate is these days on target to send Nvidia’s next-generation Blackwell GPU (graphics processing unit), a sophisticated AI server chip, within the fourth quarter of 2024, Liu advised GWN. Blackwell could also be recognized underneath the logo identify GB200.

Requested in regards to the layout secure for Blackwell, Liu mentioned that call for for the chip is “much better than we thought,” including that the company is construction untouched factories in Mexico to assistance provider oversized call for for the product.

His feedback tally with what Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has mentioned about call for for Blackwell in the past. Utmost past, Huang advised GWN’s “Closing Bell Overtime” that call for for Blackwell used to be “insane.”

“Everybody wants to have the most and everybody wants to be first,” Huang mentioned right through the interview, which aired terminating Wednesday.

Blackwell, anticipated to price between $30,000 and $40,000 in line with unit, is in sizzling call for from corporations like OpenAI, Microsoft, Meta and alternative companies construction AI information facilities to energy merchandise like ChatGPT and Copilot.

Past generating IT infrastructure for cloud-based AI packages like ChatGPT, Foxconn could also be powering the untouched iPhone 16, which comes with the fresh generative AI options Apple hopes will breathe untouched past into the smartphone trade.

Foxconn’s Liu mentioned that “on-device” AI — the place information is processed immediately on a cellular instrument, instead than a cloud or server — represents the subsequent considerable enlargement alternative for the corporate.

“I think the genAI-related device will be the next way to grow,” Liu advised GWN. “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.”

Nonetheless, it’s utility noting even though that Apple hasn’t but excepted its AI gadget, referred to as Apple Perception, on iPhone. The corporate is predicted to drop Apple Perception to the family in a beta model next q4 as a part of a untouched device replace.

Smartphone makers are hoping for a untouched time of continuing enlargement for the smartphone trade, referred to as a “supercycle,” at the again of the AI options they’re cramming into their more moderen handsets. Past Apple, Samsung, Google and Huawei derivative Honor have all long past heavy on AI with their untouched telephone launches.

Smartphone gross sales had been gaining momentum this 12 months nearest a number of consecutive years of declines. In the second one quarter of 2024, smartphone shipments climbed 6.5% year-over-year to 285.4 million devices, in line with initial information from IDC — their fourth immediately quarter of enlargement.