According to Nvidia Corp., it is stepping up its ongoing partnership with Foxconn, formerly known as Hon Hai Technology Group, to hasten the creation of robotics platforms and electric vehicles that are AI-powered.

To fuel these and other new breakthroughs it expects to bring, such as the digitization of manufacturing and generative AI services, Foxconn plans to create a new type of data centers it calls "AI factories" as part of the collaboration.

During a fireside chat between Foxconn Chairman and CEO Youn Liu and Nvidia Co-Founder and CEO Jensen Huang at Hon Hai Tech Day in Taipei, the two businesses announced their expanding partnership.

The creation of AI data factories is the new initiative's primary goal. Foxconn indicated that it intends to construct a sizable number of computing systems based on Nvidia's networking technology, graphics processing units, and central processing units. These systems, which include both Nvidia hardware and Nvidia AI Enterprise software, will be marketed to businesses wishing to create their own AI data factories.

In addition to eight Nvidia H100 GPUs, Nvidia's GH200 Superchips, and networking, Foxconn claimed the AI industrial systems it is constructing are based on Nvidia HGX reference designs. With the help of these systems, Foxconn's clients will be able to use Nvidia accelerated computing within their own data centers, enabling internal generative AI workloads as well as additional projects like teaching autonomous robots and self-driving automobiles.

Foxconn stated that in addition to constructing the parts for its clients' AI factories, it will also create its own facility. According to the business, the Foxconn AI factory will use the Nvidia Omniverse platform, Isaac, and Metropolis frameworks to fulfill the high production and quality standards of the electronics sector.

The objective, according to Foxconn, is to build an AI factory that will allow the company to produce the following generation of autonomous mobile robots and industrial robots that can travel several miles per day, assemble parts in factories, execute quality control inspections, and more. As a result, Foxconn's AI factory will concentrate on training and inference as well as executing simulations of these systems in virtual environments.

According to Charles King, an analyst at Pund-IT Inc., the partnership benefits both companies because it gives Nvidia more chances to expand its GPU acceleration strategy into new industrial markets and allows Foxconn to branch out beyond its role as Apple Inc.'s preferred manufacturer.

Foxconn has also chosen Nvidia's Drive Hyperion 9 platform, which is powered by the most recent Drive Thor automotive system-on-a-chip, as the foundation for its electronic control units for autonomous vehicles in addition to the focus on AI factories.