Nvidia and Foxconn are working collectively to construct so-called “AI factories,” a brand new class of information facilities that promise to supply supercomputing powers to speed up the event of self-driving vehicles, autonomous machines and industrial robots.
Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang and Foxconn chairman and CEO Younger Liu introduced the collaboration at Hon Hai Tech Day in Taiwan on Tuesday. The AI manufacturing facility is predicated off an Nvidia GPU computing infrastructure that shall be constructed to course of, refine and remodel huge quantities of information into priceless AI fashions and data.
“We’re constructing this complete end-to-end system the place on the one hand, you’re constructing this superior EV automotive…with an AI mind inside that permits it to work together with drivers and work together with passengers, in addition to autonomously drive, complemented by an AI manufacturing facility that develops a software program for this automotive,” stated Huang onstage on the occasion. “This automotive will undergo life expertise and gather extra information. The information will go to the AI manufacturing facility, the place the AI manufacturing facility will enhance the software program and replace your complete AI fleet.”
The AI manufacturing facility tie-up builds off a partnership between Nvidia and Foxconn introduced in January to develop autonomous car platforms. That settlement concerned Foxconn turning into a major provider of digital management items (ECUs) for automakers, which shall be constructed with Nvidia’s Drive Orin system-on-a-chip (SoC), a supercomputing AI platform that helps autonomous driving capabilities. On Tuesday, Foxconn additionally dedicated to manufacturing ECUs with Drive Thor, Nvidia’s next-gen SoC, after manufacturing begins in 2025.
As a part of that partnership, Foxconn — which has been steadily unveiling off-the-shelf EV platforms for automakers to buy — stated the automobiles it makes as a contract producer shall be constructed with Nvidia’s Drive Hyperion 9 platform, which incorporates not solely Drive Thor, but additionally a set of sensors like cameras, radar, lidar and ultrasonic which might be needed for self-driving capabilities.
Foxconn is already contracted to construct EVs for Fisker, even because it will get sued by its erstwhile accomplice Lordstown Motors. The automaker will want scale as a way to make its AI factories viable, particularly if it’s going to compete with Tesla.
As a result of these AI factories are primarily rivals to Tesla’s Dojo supercomputer, which the Elon Musk-owned automaker began manufacturing on over the summer time. Dojo will practice Tesla’s neural nets, that are used to energy, practice and enhance “full self-driving” (FSD), the automaker’s superior driver help system. Musk hopes FSD will truly be absolutely self driving in the future, which is the place the highly effective compute of Dojo is available in.
Tesla right now makes use of a big Nvidia GPU-based supercomputer, however the brand new Dojo shall be custom-built utilizing chips designed by Tesla. The Foxconn-Nvidia AI factories shall be primarily based on Nvidia’s GH200 Grace Hopper Superchip and AI Enterprise software program, based on the corporate.
The factories can have different functions past self-driving vehicles.
On stage at Hon Hai’s tech occasion, Liu shared Foxconn’s objective to transform itself “from a producing service firm to a platform options firm” by scaling the AI factories throughout varied industries. Foxconn is focusing on three platforms to start out: Good EVs, sensible cities and sensible manufacturing.
“This can be a manufacturing facility that takes information enter and produces intelligence as an output,” stated Huang, as Liu nodded his assent. “Sooner or later, each business, each firm can have an AI manufacturing facility.”