TAIPEI: Taiwanese tech giant Foxconn on Thursday reported a forecast-topping net profit for the third quarter and said it expected further strong growth in demand for artificial intelligence servers.
The firm, also known by its official name Hon Hai Precision Industry, is the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer and assembles devices for major tech companies, including Apple’s iPhones.
It has been moving to diversify beyond electronics assembly, pushing into areas ranging from electric vehicles to semiconductors and servers.
Foxconn said net profit for the three months to September hit NT$49.3 billion (US$1.5 billion), up 14 percent from a year ago and beating the NT$45.9 billion expected by analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
Revenues for the July-September period rose 20 percent on-year to NT$1.9 trillion.
The figures represent the fifth consecutive quarter of profit growth for the firm as it rides a wave of demand for generative AI – following the runaway popularity of products such as ChatGPT since it launched two years ago.
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The company said at a previous earnings call that its revenue from AI servers more than doubled in the first half of this year from the same period last year.
Foxconn has invested significantly to be part of the AI technology market.
In documents released ahead of an earnings call, the company said it expected “rapid growth” in its AI server business in 2025.
The company said last month it was building the world’s largest production plant in Mexico for assembling US hardware leader Nvidia’s GB200 “superchips” that power artificial intelligence servers.
The bulk of Foxconn’s operations is based in China, and it is the country’s largest private-sector employer with more than a million workers nationwide.
But it is looking to diversify its manufacturing supply chain after production was impacted by three years of strict Covid policies, a bout of industrial unrest and diplomatic tensions with the United States.
Last month, Chinese state media reported that Beijing is investigating four Foxconn workers for suspected bribery and embezzlement, after Taiwanese authorities said they had been detained in “strange” circumstances.
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