https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/telcos-media-tech/foxconns-august-sales-climb-33-ai-demand

Published Thu, Sep 5, 2024 · 07:39 PM

HON Hai Precision Industry’s revenue rose 33 per cent in August, accelerating from the previous month thanks to demand for servers powering AI applications.

Apple’s main manufacturing partner, also known as Foxconn, reported sales of NT$548.3 billion (S$22.3 billion) – a record for the month of August. That pace was up sharply from growth of 22 per cent in July.

Foxconn’s topline has begun to recover from a protracted smartphone slump, helped by a growing business supplying data centre operators with servers containing Nvidia’s AI accelerators. Last month, it said it expects revenue to grow over the rest of year, reversing successive quarterly declines. The company’s shares are up close to 70 per cent in 2024.

Some investors preach caution. Nvidia reported earnings that failed to live up to expectations, triggering a record sell-off. And analysts have issued fresh warnings that AI’s potential is thus far largely untested and unproven.

“Nvidia’s clarification of its scheduled production ramp-up of Blackwell, its next-generation AI GPU platform, in late 2024 helps remove uncertainty over likely growth of the AI server supply chain next year,” said Steven Tseng and Sean Chen, Bloomberg Intelligence analysts. “Despite very limited contribution of the new chips this year, major ODMs such as Hon Hai, Quanta and Wiwynn are set to post triple-digit growth in AI server sales with stellar shipments of systems featuring Hopper chips, Nvidia’s current mainstream platform, in 2H24.”

Still, Hon Hai has set itself the goal of securing 40 per cent of the global AI server market, relying on relationships with many of the world’s biggest tech companies and its own manufacturing expertise.

The Taiwanese company also benefits from consumer electronics demand, and the addition of AI features and enhancements may encourage mobile users to upgrade their devices. Shipments of the iPhone in China have in recent months have bounced back, and the global smartphone market is recovering. Apple is preparing to unveil the iPhone 16 next week.

“Entering the peak season in the second half of the year, we anticipate our operation to gradually gain momentum,” the company said in a statement. BLOOMBERG