Foxconn Industrial Internet Co (FII, 富士康工業互聯網), an Internet-focused subsidiary of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), plans to roll out servers for use in space computing within 18 to 24 months, a source close to the project said on Tuesday.
Hon Hai is likely to work with Space Exploration Technologies Corp to develop computing devices for low-orbit satellites in a bid to facilitate communications between Earth and space, market analysts said.
FII has set up a space computing research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan consisting of more than 300 staff, and plans to tap into the growing popularity of micro data centers by launching space-grade servers and placing them in orbit, the source said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The company is taking advantage of its efforts to develop artificial intelligence (AI) to enter the space computing sector, the source said.
FII has held talks with two potential clients that are interested in the company’s space computing applications, the source said.
It has intensified efforts to develop servers used in AI, and has set up surface-mount technology production facilities in Taiwan, Mexico, the US and Vietnam for high-end AI device development, they said.
Such expansion indicates that the company is placing more emphasis on advanced servers for AI applications outside China, the source said.
FII has also entered the cloud gaming business, with major research and development hubs in Taiwan and the US, they said.
The company, which is exploring business opportunities resulting from the growing popularity of ChatGPT, has reported solid demand for high-performance AI servers, which have upgraded computing capacity, the source said.
The company has also entered the data center business by integrating the manufacture of graphics processing units and central processing units, they said.
FII has teamed up with Nvidia Corp to develop advanced AI servers, and has invested in modularized servers, through its 100 percent-owned unit Ingrasys Technology Inc (鴻佰科技), to provide a comprehensive AI server product portfolio, the source said.
AI servers are expected to account for about 30 percent of FII’s total sales this year, they added.
FII reported 511.85 billion yuan (US$74.37 billion) in sales last year — the first time the company has generated sales above 500 billion yuan.
The figure is 16.4 percent higher than a year earlier due to an increase in shipments of products such as servers, wireless communications gadgets and metal middle frames for smartphones, the company said.
Sales generated from cloud computing totaled 212.24 billion yuan last year, with cloud services accounting for 42 percent, FII said.
Microsoft Corp and Alphabet Inc’s Google are among the company’s major clients.
FII plans to use its four IC packaging and testing plants in China, procured from ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控) in late 2021, to develop packaging and testing services for third-generation semiconductors, which refers to products that contain silicon carbide and gallium nitride for electric vehicle production, the source said.
Kore Semiconductor Co (新核芯科技), Hon Hai’s first IC packaging and testing firm in Qingdao, China, which specializes in wafer-level packaging technologies used in logic and memory chips, is expected to provide silicon carbide packaging services in the second half of this year, they said.
In a small town in Paraguay, a showdown is brewing between traditional producers of yerba mate, a bitter herbal tea popular across South America, and miners of a shinier treasure: gold. A rush for the precious metal is pitting mate growers and indigenous groups against the expanding operations of small-scale miners who, until recently, were their neighbors, not nemeses. “They [the miners] have destroyed everything... The canals, springs, swamps,” said Vidal Britez, president of the Yerba Mate Producers’ Association of the town of Paso Yobai, about 210km east of capital Asuncion. “You can see the pollution from the dead fish.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
ASML Holding NV, the sole producer of the most advanced machines used in semiconductor manufacturing, said geopolitical tensions are harming innovation a day after US President Donald Trump levied massive tariffs that promise to disrupt trade flows across the entire world. “Our industry has been built basically on the ability of people to work together, to innovate together,” ASML chief executive officer Christophe Fouquet said in a recorded message at a Thursday industry event in the Netherlands. Export controls and increasing geopolitical tensions challenge that collaboration, he said, without specifically addressing the new US tariffs. Tech executives in the EU, which is
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
RSS