NVIDIA and Foxconn are building Taiwan's largest supercomputer, marking a milestone in the island's AI advancement. The project, Hon Hai Kaohsiung Super Computing Center, revealed Tuesday at Hon Hai Tech Day, will be built around NVIDIA's groundbreaking Blackwell architecture and feature the GB200 NVL72 platform, which includes a total of 64 racks and 4,608 Tensor Core GPUs. With an expected performance of over 90 exaflops of AI performance, the machine would easily be considered the fastest in Taiwan.

Foxconn plans to use the supercomputer, once operational, to power breakthroughs in cancer research, large language model development and smart city innovations, positioning Taiwan as a global leader in AI-driven industries. Foxconn's "three-platform strategy" focuses on smart manufacturing, smart cities and electric vehicles. The new supercomputer will play a pivotal role in supporting Foxconn's ongoing efforts in digital twins, robotic automation and smart urban infrastructure, bringing AI-assisted services to urban areas like Kaohsiung.

NVIDIA today announced major advancements to Universal Scene Description, or OpenUSD, that will expand adoption of the universal 3D data interchange framework to robotics, industrial design and engineering, and accelerate developers' abilities to build highly accurate virtual worlds for the next evolution of AI.

Through new OpenUSD-based generative AI and NVIDIA-accelerated development frameworks built on the NVIDIA Omniverse platform, more industries can now develop applications for visualizing industrial design and engineering projects, and for simulating environments to build the next wave of physical AI and robots.

TrendForce underscores that the primary momentum for server shipments this year remains with American CSPs. However, due to persistently high inflation and elevated corporate financing costs curtailing capital expenditures, overall demand has not yet returned to pre-pandemic growth levels. Global server shipments are estimated to reach approximately. 13.654 million units in 2024, an increase of about 2.05% YoY. Meanwhile, the market continues to focus on the deployment of AI servers, with their shipment share estimated at around 12.1%.

Foxconn is expected to see the highest growth rate, with an estimated annual increase of about 5-7%. This growth includes significant orders such as Dell's 16G platform, AWS Graviton 3 and 4, Google Genoa, and Microsoft Gen9. In terms of AI server orders, Foxconn has made notable inroads with Oracle and has also secured some AWS ASIC orders.

The spirit of software pioneer Grace Hopper will live on at NVIDIA GTC. Accelerated systems using powerful processors - named in honor of the pioneer of software programming - will be on display at the global AI conference running March 18-21, ready to take computing to the next level. System makers will show more than 500 servers in multiple configurations across 18 racks, all packing NVIDIA GH200 Grace Hopper Superchips. They'll form the largest display at NVIDIA's booth in the San Jose Convention Center, filling the MGX Pavilion.

MGX Speeds Time to Market
NVIDIA MGX is a blueprint for building accelerated servers with any combination of GPUs, CPUs and data processing units (DPUs) for a wide range of AI, high performance computing and NVIDIA Omniverse applications. It's a modular reference architecture for use across multiple product generations and workloads. GTC attendees can get an up-close look at MGX models tailored for enterprise, cloud and telco-edge uses, such as generative AI inference, recommenders and data analytics. The pavilion will showcase accelerated systems packing single and dual GH200 Superchips in 1U and 2U chassis, linked via NVIDIA BlueField-3 DPUs and NVIDIA Quantum-2 400 Gb/s InfiniBand networks over LinkX cables and transceivers. The systems support industry standards for 19- and 21-inch rack enclosures, and many provide E1.S bays for nonvolatile storage.

NVIDIA today announced that it is collaborating with Hon Hai Technology Group (Foxconn) to accelerate the AI industrial revolution. Foxconn will integrate NVIDIA technology to develop a new class of data centers powering a wide range of applications—including digitalization of manufacturing and inspection workflows, development of AI-powered electric vehicle and robotics platforms, and a growing number of language-based generative AI services.

Announced in a fireside chat with NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang and Foxconn Chairman and CEO Young Liu at Hon Hai Tech Day, in Taipei, the collaboration starts with the creation of AI factories—an NVIDIA GPU computing infrastructure specially built for processing, refining and transforming vast amounts of data into valuable AI models and tokens—based on the NVIDIA accelerated computing platform, including the latest NVIDIA GH200 Grace Hopper Superchip and NVIDIA AI Enterprise software.

The BBC has conducted an exclusive interview with Young Liu, the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Foxconn. The discussion focused mostly on the Taiwanese multinational electronics contract manufacturer having to navigate choppy waters—it is adapting to cooling international relations with China. Foxconn has many production plants in the region—most notably more than half of Apple products (iPhones and iMacs) are made in these facilities, but Liu's firm has already shifted production bases to other countries and continues to do so. Foxconn has done very well for itself from a traditional strategy of manufacturing US-designed products in China—other lucrative contracts have resulted from partnerships with Sony, Microsoft, Amazon and Dell. Liu acknowledges that some of his Western clients have requested that their products be manufactured outside of China due to political pressures: "They get the push from their government about de-risking, and then they will let us know."

The subject matter changes to Foxconn's ambition in the world of electic vehicles—Liu is less guarded about his company's targeted growth in this market. He cites wanting to gain 5% of the global EV market within the next few years, and is reported to confident about his firm's prospects. He demonstrated a prototype SUV model to the BBC reporter, with emphasis on the car's dashboard: "Look at this - this is a big iPhone, so we're very familiar with this." Foxconn had a small number of EV models on display, but it hopes to target middle-class buyers with eventual product launches. Liu explained that his company's expertise in electronics is a great advantage as they delve into a new market segment: "The reason why we think this is a great opportunity for us is that with the traditional gas engine, you have engines which are mostly mechanical. But with EVs, it's batteries and motors." Foxconn has plans for a global set of car manufacturing facilities—Thailand, Indonesia, India and the USA are mentioned. Liu proposes that his firm's future success will hinge on this diversified location model: "It doesn't make sense for you to make [EVs] in one place, so regionalized production for cars is very natural."

Foxconn has commited to $500 million of investments into new operations within Telangana, a southern state located in India. The region's IT minister, K. T. Rama Rao, broke the news earlier today and declared that the Taiwanese multinational electronics contract manufacturer will be building new factory facilities - with the first example breaking ground in Kongara Kalan (a village to the south of Hyderabad) this morning.

The minister estimates that the "first phase" of new Foxconn manufacturing plants will help generate 25,000 "direct jobs" across the state of Telangana. Reuters has previously reported that Foxconn has been granted a new contract for the manufacture of next generation AirPods - Apple is a key client for the company, and executives have pushed for a shift in production locations due to problems encountered in China. Foxconn's move into India is observed as a strategic decision - facilities are less likely to get shutdown (due to health restrictions) and the country is not getting hit with advanced semiconductor sanctions.

Due to the various major events that affected the global economy and politics, the overall demand for consumer electronics made a sharp downward turn in 2022, and global shipments of notebook (laptop) computers began to fall over the quarters. TrendForce's latest analysis finds that global shipments of notebook computers (from ODMs) reached just around 186 million units for 2022, showing a YoY drop of 24.5%. As for 2023, the outlook on the performance of the notebook computer market remains uncertain at this moment. TrendForce expects the YoY decline to moderate to about 7.8%, but shipments are projected to total only 171 million units.

Because market demand was anemic in 4Q22, promotional activities related to the traditional year-end peak season did not generate a lot of sales momentum. Looking at regional markets, notebook brands (PC OEMs) slashed prices in the US and China, but their sales results still did not meet expectations. This development was mainly attributed to factors such as high inflation suppressing consumers' disposable income. Since the sales results for 4Q22 were lackluster, efforts to get rid of the existing stockpile of whole devices might continue through 2Q23. Furthermore, order placements from channels are going to be much more restrained.

According to TrendForce's latest research, global smartphone production totaled around 289 million units for 3Q22, showing a slight QoQ drop of 0.9% and a YoY drop of 11%. The smartphone market thus exhibited an extremely weak demand situation as the "iron law" of positive growth in the third quarter was broken after being in effect for years. The contraction of smartphone production during this year's peak season was mainly attributed to smartphone brands giving priority to consumption of channel inventory for whole devices and maintaining a fairly conservative production plan for 3Q22. Moreover, they had kept lowering their production targets due to strong global economic headwinds.

Regarding the performances of the major smartphone brands in 3Q22, Samsung posted around 64.2 million units in device production, showing a QoQ increase of just 3.9%. This was the result of the brand scaling back production since 2Q22 and maintaining a conservative outlook on the future market situation. Due to persistent inventory pressure, Samsung is expected to again post a QoQ decline for 4Q22. In the aspect of product development, Samsung has been the leader in foldable smartphones. This year, the global market share of foldable smartphones is estimated to reach 1.1%; and within this segment, Samsung is expected to hold a market share of almost 90%. As for 2023, the global market share of foldable smartphones is forecasted to climb to 1.5%, and Samsung is forecasted to retain a market share of almost 80% in the segment.

Foxconn's ambitions as a semiconductor player are growing with yet another potential joint venture being announced, this time in Malaysia. Hang on, Foxconn doesn't make semiconductors you might be thinking right now, but the company has actually owned semiconductor fabs since 2016, when it acquired Sharp and ended up with an 8-inch fab in Fukuyama in Japan. Foxconn has also tried to buy an 8-inch fab in Malaysia in 2020, as well as trying to take over Taiwanese non-volatile memory manufacturer Macronix at one point. It seems like the company has decided to take a different route this year, with news of a joint venture in India and now plans of another joint venture with Dagang NeXchange Berhad (DNex) in Malaysia.

The two companies have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU), although it's a subsidiary of Foxconn, Big Innovation Holding Limited (BIH) that actually signed the paperwork. The MOU is about building a 12-inch fab according to Focus Taiwan/CNA which reports that the fab will be making chips using 40 to 28 nm processes. It's possible that this will be for the various EV projects that Foxconn is involved with and it would be a less risky way to enter the semiconductor market for Foxconn. The fab is said to be able to output 40,000 wafers a month once it starts, although when this will be is anyone's guess at the moment. Foxconn's focus is on what the company calls the 3 plus 3 initiative, which relates to electrical vehicles, robotics and healthcare solutions, which are built in AI, semiconductors and communication technologies, all presumably from within Foxconn. Time will tell if Foxconn manages to pull this off, but until the construction of the fab has started, this is nothing more than a potential project for Foxconn.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE: HPE) today announced its ongoing commitment in Europe by building its first factory in the region for next-generation high performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) systems to accelerate delivery to customers and strengthen the region's supplier ecosystem. The new site will manufacture HPE's industry-leading systems as custom-designed solutions to advance scientific research, mature AL/ML initiatives, and bolster innovation.

The dedicated HPC factory, which will become the fourth of HPE's global HPC sites, will be located in Kutná Hora, Czech Republic, next to HPE's existing European site for manufacturing its industry-standard servers and storage solutions. Operations will begin in summer 2022.

At the end of 2021, there was quite a lot of noise when it came to India's homegrown semiconductor fab initiative, where the nation was trying to win over Intel, as well as some other semiconductor manufacturers. It would appear that the Indian government has stepped up its efforts and is now actively pitching to Intel, GlobalFoundries and TSMC. The main person behind this is said to be Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the minister of state for technology and entrepreneurship and a former Intel engineer. So far it seems like Chandrasekhar hasn't gotten very far according to the article The Economic Times, where he states that "We're meeting the CEOs, talking to them, making presentations."

On the other hand, recent news has suggested that Foxconn is interested in setting up some kind of foundry in India, in a partnership with local Vedanta Group. It's unclear what kind of semiconductors this would be for though, especially as Vedanta is mostly in the mining industry. The various Indian states are said to be very keen on the other hand, both in terms of getting new industry, but also in getting new investments. Earlier this month, during his tour of several Asian countries, Intel's CEO, Pat Gelsinger had a meeting with the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, but what came of that meeting is unclear. India is hoping to be able to reproduce the success it has had when it comes to manufacturing smartphones locally, with Samsung, Nokia and Xiaomi producing locally, as well as Taiwanese Foxconn, Wistron and Pegatron, who contract manufacture Apple devices. However, semiconductors are far more complex to make than smartphones, so if India isn't willing to play the long game, it's unlikely much will come of its attempts to attract semiconductor foundries.

Foxconn, which is a key supplier of Apple products, announced on Monday, that it is suspending production in its Shenzhen plants to comply with a new COVID-19 lockdown in the region. The company is attempting to minimize the impact of this on the supply-chain, by increasing manufacturing output of its plants in other regions, it said in a statement. China is witnessing its highest surge in COVID-19 cases since 2020, and the fresh outbreak is expected to affect manufacturing across the country, as factories comply with cubs set in place by health officials. Besides Foxconn, two other suppliers of Apple, namely Unimicron and Sunflex, have announced a suspension of manufacturing operations in the Shenzhen area.

Vedanta, one of India's leading multinational groups, and Hon Hai Technology Group ("Foxconn"), world's largest electronics manufacturing company, today announced signing an MOU to form a joint venture company that will manufacture semiconductors in India. This first-of-its-kind joint venture between the two companies will support Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision to create an ecosystem for semiconductor manufacturing in India.

According to the MOU signed between the two companies, Vedanta will hold the majority of the equity in the JV, while Foxconn will be the minority shareholder. Vedanta Chairman Anil Agarwal will be the Chairman of the joint venture company. The targeted project plans to invest for manufacturing semiconductors. It will provide a significant boost to domestic manufacturing of electronics in India. Discussions are currently ongoing with a few State Governments to finalize the location of the plant. The collaboration between Vedanta and Foxconn follows the India Government's recent policy announcement for Electronics Manufacturing & PLI scheme for incentivizing organizations to contribute towards development of this sector. This will be the first joint venture in the electronics manufacturing space after the announcement of the policy.

Over the past couple of months there have been a lot of calls for more investment into the semiconductor industry due to the current shortage of many different kinds of semiconductors. As we've seen, several government organizations have already started working on how to woo chip makers to their part of the world and the latest nation to join the fray is India.

Unlike the US and the EU where so far no firm budgets have been approved, India has already approved a US$10 billion incentive plan for semiconductor, as well as display panel manufacturers who are willing to consider India as the next location for their new fabs. According to Reuters, the Indian government is said to cover up to 50 percent of the project cost of new semiconductor and display panel fabs. So far it seems like at least three companies are interested in the scheme for semiconductor manufacturing, namely Tower Semiconductor out of Israel, Foxconn and an unnamed Singaporean consortium.

KIOXIA America, Inc. today announced the production availability of its EM6 Series Enterprise NVMe-oF solid state drives (SSDs) for Ethernet Bunch of Flash (EBOF) systems. Using the Marvell 88SN2400 NVMe-oF SSD converter controller that converts an NVMe SSD into a dual-ported 25Gb NVMe-oF SSD, KIOXIA EM6 Series drives expose the entire SSD bandwidth to the network.

Due to their ability to scale performance of NVMe SSDs, native NVMe-oF architectures are well-suited for applications such as artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML), high performance computing (HPC) and storage expansion. In the case of HPC, leveraging the Lustre file system, which is used to provide high bandwidth and parallel access to compute clusters, is beneficial to NVMe-oF based storage, such as EBOF systems with EM6 SSDs, that enable high availability (HA) configurations. An HPC HA configuration example consists of multiple and redundant network connections between a compute host and an EBOF with 88SN2400-connected NVMe SSDs, to deliver scalable throughput based on the number of SSDs.

Despite the current shortage of just about everything, Foxconn doesn't appear to be suffering, as the company has reported record sales for the third quarter of this year. The company recorded sales of close to NT$1.4 trillion, or about US$50 billion, with a consolidated revenue of just over NT$585.7 billion or about US$20.9 billion.

Sales revenue for Foxconn increased 8.8 percent compared to the same period last year and a 3.44 percent increase quarter on quarter, with sales in September being the best so far this year for the company. The top grossing product groups included consumer smart devices, computers and cloud networking products. This is likely due to no small part due to Apple launching the iPhone 13, as well as its new tablet products last month. Foxconn is expecting a gross profit of 12 to 13 percent for the second half of 2021, which is a significant increase from around 8 to 9 percent for the first half of the year.

AMD's decision to not launch its Ryzen 4000G "Renoir" Socket AM4 processors in the DIY retail channel has baffled many in the PC enthusiast community. The parts are now exclusively in the OEM channel, however bootlegging of these chips out of the tray is rampant in Asia. A Hong Kong based eBay seller listed several 4000G SKUs, such as the flagship Ryzen 7 PRO 4750G, at a premium.

Apparently trays of 4000G chips - which aren't even supposed to end up with SI (system integrators), and only with big OEMs (think Compal, Foxconn, Dell, Lenovo, HP, etc), have somehow made their way to Asia's PC retail malls, where they're sold piecemeal, and at a premium. You pay for a chip, and the storekeeper pops one out of the tray and hands it over to you, straight up. Don't want to deal with its pins? Why not bundle it with a compatible motherboard from the same retailer, who will install the chip on the socket for you? Listings such as this one, are fraught with all the risks of bootleg commerce - the chip comes with no warranties, and the seller accepts no returns. Your only protection against getting a paperweight in your box is PayPal. It's time AMD put an end to this bovine defecation with a retail launch.

Softbank-owned company Arm Ltd. has been a subject to a round of rumors regarding the potential buyout of the company because Softbank has considered selling it for some time. The company has approached NVIDIA, with their talks getting "advanced", and Samsung wants a piece of the cake as well. It is now reported that Softbank has approached TSMC and Foxconn as well, regarding a potential Arm takeover. In the report by Nikkei Asia, we have found out that Arm has shared the same financial data points and business plan with TSMC and Foxconn, the same way company did with NVIDIA.

If TSMC and Foxconn have any interest in the company, it would be necessary to create a consortium that would operate Arm Ltd. With NVIDIA, Samsung, and these two new players, the consortium would already count four companies. Nikkei sources claim that Apple and Qualcomm have been also included in the poll of potential buyers, which would make the idea of establishing a consortium very valid.

Belkin, the connected things division within the Belkin International and Foxconn Interconnect Technology entity, today announced the Thunderbolt 3 Dock Core. It completes Belkin's family of Thunderbolt 3 docks, including the Thunderbolt 3 Dock Pro, Thunderbolt 3 Dock Plus and the Thunderbolt 3 Dock Mini.

The Thunderbolt 3 Dock Core, the world's first Thunderbolt -certified, dual-powered dock, offers compatibility to bring the benefits of Thunderbolt 3 technology to both Mac and Windows laptops. Like the entire Belkin Dock family, it's designed for users who need fast transfer rates and a one cable solution to connect laptops to peripherals. The Thunderbolt 3 Dock Core has a small, compact footprint, reducing clutter and multiple cables on a desk.

Pictures of alleged next-generation GeForce "Ampere" graphics cards emerged over the weekend, which many of our readers found hard to believe. It's features a dual-fan cooling solution, in which one of the two fans is on the reverse side of the card, blowing air outward from the cooling solution, while the PCB extends two-thirds the length of the card. Since then, there have been several fan-made 3D renders of the card. NVIDIA is not happy with the leak, and started an investigation into two of its contractors responsible for manufacturing Founders Edition (reference design) GeForce graphics cards, Foxconn and BYD (Build Your Dreams), according to a report by Igor's Lab.

According to the report, the cooling solution, which looks a lot more overengineered than the company's RTX 20-series Founders Edition cooler, costs a hefty USD $150, or roughly the price of a 280 mm AIO CLC. It wouldn't surprise us if Asetek's RadCard costs less. The cooler consists of several interconnected heatsink elements with the PCB in the middle. Igor's Lab reports that the card is estimated to be 21.9 cm in length. Given its cost, NVIDIA is reserving this cooler for only the top three SKUs in the lineup, the TITAN RTX successor, the RTX 2080 Ti successor, and the RTX 2080/SUPER successor.

Some of the recent news from China is the stuff of science fiction, with the Central Government there locking down entire cities to contain the deadly Coronavirus outbreak there. When cities with 10+ million populations are under lock-down, it's only natural for factories to run out of workforce. According to a ZeroHedge report, the government has reportedly shut down factories owned or operated by big names in the technology and FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) industries.

Among these are the ubiquitous Foxconn, which has manufacturing contracts with the biggest silicon valley tech firms for contract-manufacturing their hard-product - including the Apple iPhone; and Samsung Electronics, which makes consumer electronics, home appliances, and certain semiconductor products in China. A third big name in the report is the FMCG and pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson. The closure of factories could wreck tech stocks in the coming trading sessions, not to mention possible impact on prices of electronics. As of now, the closure is stipulated for the next 1-2 weeks.

Intel issued a product change notification (PCN) dated November 13, calling for a recall of boxed Xeon E-2274G processors from customers and distributors. The boxed SKU of the E-2274G, which includes a stock cooling solution, has been marked as "discontinued" and "end of life." Intel is offering an E-2274G tray processor (chip-only) as replacement for the returned inventory. The cause for the recall is the cooling solution included in the boxed SKU, which has been found to be insufficient to cool the E-2274G, a 4-core/8-thread processor based on the 14 nm++ "Coffee Lake" microarchitecture, with a rated TDP of 88 W.

The E973708-003 fan-heatsink included with boxed Xeon E-2274G processors is supplied by Foxconn, and has been known to be bundled with Intel's entry-level client-segment processors, such as the Pentium Gold series and Core i3 series (chips with TDP typically rated 65 W or less). It features a thin, circular, all-aluminium heatsink, which lacks a copper core that certain other LGA115x-compatible stock coolers by Intel have. The heatsink makes contact with the CPU over pre-applied TIM on an aluminium surface, with spirally-projecting fins dissipating heat under the fan's airflow. It could be been an oversight bundling such an underpowered cooler with an 88 W TDP processor that's designed for the rigors of mission-critical use-cases such as workstations and small-business servers.Heatsink images courtesy: AndyKingParts (Amazon seller)

Even as we achieve consumerism in scales hitherto unseen, tech companies always want to sell more - there's "always" increased production, there must always be increased, projected demand from customers. However, when demand isn't there, and growth slows down or even stagnates, production takes its time to adjust - and already manufactured products have few opportunities other than going on towards a swelling inventory.

This is what is happening with a myriad of tech companies, such as Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi, Intel, Hon Hai (Foxconn), among others. We could even take a page from our own PC industry and look at NVIDIA's Pascal inventory that is in need of clearing up - and which has resulted in bottoming prices of previous-gen cards as we look towards the new RTX 20-series. Which, coincidentally, have been launched with increased pricing over the previous generation. Perhaps another way of moving old inventory?

Foxconn Interconnect Technology Limited (FIT), a subsidiary of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd., and Belkin International, Inc. (Belkin , Linksys , Wemo , Phyn brands) jointly announced today the signing of a definitive agreement under which FIT agreed to acquire Belkin International for approximately US$866 million in cash, creating a global consumer electronics leader.

Leveraging Belkin's strength in research and development capabilities and the consumer products channel, FIT is expected to further tap into premium accessories and the smart home market. The transaction would also fuel the growth of Belkin's portfolio of brands and products and supports further investment in research and development and engineering to expand FIT and Belkin's presence in the U.S. and key markets globally.

"FIT is excited to acquire Belkin and its capabilities in the premium consumer products space," said Sidney Lu, CEO, FIT. "Integrating Belkin's best-in-class capabilities and solutions into FIT, we expect to enrich our portfolio of premium consumer products and accelerate our penetration into the smart home."