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Nvidia and Foxconn are teaming up to create so-called “AI factories,” a new class of data centers that promise to provide supercomputing powers to accelerate the development of self-driving cars, autonomous machines and industrial robots. Is.
Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang and Foxconn Chairman and CEO Yang Liu announced the collaboration on Honorable High Tech Day in Taiwan on Tuesday. The AI Factory is based on an Nvidia GPU computing infrastructure that will be built to process, refine and transform large amounts of data into valuable AI models and information.
“We are building this entire end-to-end system where, on the one hand, you are building this advanced EV car… there is an AI brain inside that allows it to interact with drivers and interact with passengers. as well as allowing it to drive autonomously. Complemented by an AI factory, which develops a software for this car,” Huang said on stage at the event. “This car will go through life experience and collect more data. The data will go to the AI Factory, where the AI Factory will improve the software and update the entire AI fleet.
The AI Factory collaboration builds on a partnership announced in January between Nvidia and Foxconn to develop autonomous vehicle platforms. In that agreement Foxconn became the primary supplier of electronic control units (ECUs) to automakers that will be built with Nvidia’s DriveOrin system-on-a-chip (SoC), a supercomputing AI platform that performs autonomous driving functions. Supports. On Tuesday, Foxconn also committed to manufacturing ECUs with Drive Thor, Nvidia’s next-generation SoC, after production begins in 2025.
As part of that partnership, Foxconn – which has been steadily unveiling off-the-shelf EV platforms for automakers to purchase – said the vehicles it builds as a contract manufacturer will be based on Nvidia’s The drive will be built with the Hyperion 9 platform, which includes not only the drive Thor. , but also a suite of sensors like cameras, radar, lidar, and ultrasonic that are essential for self-driving capabilities.
Foxconn is already contracted to make EVs for Fisker, even though its former partner Lordstown Motors has sued it. The automaker will need scale to make its AI factories viable, especially if it’s going to compete with Tesla.
Because these AI factories are essentially a rival to Tesla’s Dojo supercomputer, which the Elon Musk-owned automaker began production over the summer. Dojo will train Tesla’s neural nets, which are used to power, train and improve the automaker’s advanced driver assistance system “Full Self-Driving” (FSD). Musk hopes that FSDs will indeed one day become fully self-driving, which is where Dojo’s powerful calculations come in.
Tesla uses a large Nvidia GPU-based supercomputer today, but the new Dojo will be custom-built using chips designed by Tesla. According to the company, the Foxconn-Nvidia AI factories will be based on Nvidia’s GH200 Grace Hopper superchip and AI enterprise software.
The factories will have other applications besides self-driving cars.
On stage at Hon Hai’s technology event, Liu shared Foxconn’s goal of “transforming itself from a manufacturing service company to a platform solutions company” by expanding AI factories in various industries. Foxconn is targeting three platforms to start: smart EVs, smart cities and smart manufacturing.
“It’s a factory that takes data input and produces intelligence as output,” Huang said, when Liu agreed. “In the future, every industry, every company will have an AI factory.”
