Apple’s iPhone maker expects to more than double AI server sales

Signage at the Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. headquarters in New Taipei City, Taiwan, on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2022. Taiwan wants to force Foxconn Technology Group to unwind an $800 million investment in Chinese chipmaker Tsinghua Unigroup, the Financial Times reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter. Photographer Lam Yik Fei/Bloomberg Photographer: Lam Yik Fei/Bloomberg

Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. expects to at least double revenue in the second half from the sale of servers intended for training and hosting AI services, joining the growing ranks of hardware suppliers riding growing global interest in artificial intelligence.

The company posted NT$1.1 trillion ($35.8 billion) of revenue from its overall server business in 2022, Chairman Young Liu said at its annual shareholders’ meeting Wednesday. Hon Hai, the listed vehicle of Foxconn Technology Group, is also working with Nvidia Corp. on autonomous driving applications, he said.

Investors are betting that generative AI, popularized since the launch of ChatGPT in November, will supercharge swaths of the tech industry and usher in groundbreaking applications. Nvidia’s valuation briefly surpassed $1 trillion after the world’s biggest maker of the specialized AI chips gave a forecast that exceeded expectations.

In a two-hour presentation at the Computex conference this week Taiwan, Nvidia Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang unveiled a new batch of products and services tied to artificial intelligence, looking to capitalize on a frenzy that has made his company the world’s most valuable chipmaker.

Hon Hai, which also makes the majority of Apple Inc.’s iPhones, reported its third consecutive quarterly profit miss in May as the smartphone slump endured. The company is looking to newer fields such as electric vehicles and AI to revive growth. It supplies servers to major global companies including Amazon.com. Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google, and Microsoft Corp.