Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday said it is deepening its partnership with Nvidia Corp by developing next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) platforms and “AI factories” for electric and autonomous vehicles together.
The concepts they are developing could also be applied to industries such as smart manufacturing and robotics, the companies said.
The latest move, announced at the annual Hon Hai Tech Day in Taipei, would help the company realize its electric vehicle (EV) ambitions with a range of solutions using Nvidia’s Drive platform.
Photo: AFP
The companies said that their collaboration on creating “AI factories” would be based on an Nvidia computing infrastructure specially built for processing, refining and transforming vast amounts of data into valuable AI models and tokens.
“Most importantly, Nvidia and Hon Hai are building these factories together. We will be helping the whole industry move much faster into the new AI era,” Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) said.
“A new type of manufacturing has emerged — the production of intelligence, and the data centers that produce it are AI factories,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. “Hon Hai, 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 Hon Hai to accelerate the AI industrial revolution.”
Huang said that an AI factory that processes data into intelligence would improve EV software and upgrade entire fleets of vehicles to work more intelligently.
During a question-and-answer session, Young said that Hon Hai would be well-prepared to accept orders from Chinese EV brands once Beijing lifts restrictions that prevent companies from providing vehicle design and manufacturing services on a contract basis.
Hon Hai seeks to expand its global footprint by teaming up with local partners.
“China will relax the outsourcing restrictions sooner or later,” Young said, adding that competition is fierce in China, where about 200 automakers are vying for a piece of the market.
Against that backdrop, Chinese automakers are under heavy pressure and might farm out orders to safeguard their market positions, he said.
In Taiwan, Hon Hai plans to build up capacity to produce 50,000 to 100,000 EVs annually, as it seeks to secure a 10 percent market share with sales of about 400,000 to 450,000 units a year, it said.
The company is in talks with 14 potential customers and has worked on 23 development projects, chief EV strategy officer Jun Seki said.
India and Japan have the potential to become new top EV markets after China, he said.
Hon Hai yesterday unveiled the Model N logistics EV and the mass-production version of its Model B crossover sports utility vehicle (SUV), which it said has been well-received by customers.
The electric Model C SUV would enter volume production next year, as its first customer, Luxgen Motor Co (納智捷), is slated to deliver its N7 model in the first quarter of next year, it said.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
STORM’S PATH: Kong-Rey could be the first typhoon to make landfall in Taiwan in November since Gilda in 1967. Taitung-Green Island ferry services have been halted Tropical Storm Kong-rey is forecast to strengthen into a typhoon early today and could make landfall in Taitung County between late Thursday and early Friday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, Kong-Rey was 1,030km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), the nation’s southernmost point, and was moving west at 7kph. The tropical storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 101kph, with gusts of up to 126 kph, CWA data showed. After landing in Taitung, the eye of the storm is forecast to move into the Taiwan Strait through central Taiwan on Friday morning, the agency said. With the storm moving
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work