Taiwan's Foxconn Technology Group, also known as Foxconn, the world's largest contract manufacturer of electronics, is building a huge factory in Mexico to assemble GB200 superchips, a key component of United States technology company Nvidia's next-generation Blackwell computing platform. This strategic move aims to meet the growing demand for artificial intelligence (AI) systems.
Nvidia's GB200 superchip is an advanced processor designed for AI and high-performance computing, which has a wide range of applications in AI training and inference, data processing, physical simulation, scientific research, personalized services, multimodal applications, enterprise applications, automotive chips, medical centers, and supercomputers. The chip's high performance and fast data processing capabilities make it a key technology to drive the AI revolution and accelerate complex computing tasks, and the GB200 superchip is expected to play an important role in scientific research, enterprise operations, and personal consumer products.
Nvidia's GB200 superchip is part of its new Blackwell architecture, which combines advanced CPU and GPU capabilities and is designed for AI and server use. This superchip combines a 72-core Grace CPU with a Blackwell Tensor Core GPU and is designed to efficiently handle major AI tasks.
Pictured: Foxconn builds a factory in Mexico
Foxconn already has a large manufacturing presence in Mexico and has invested more than $500 million in Chihuahua. The new plant is expected to become the world's largest GB200 super chip production base, further expanding Foxconn's business footprint in the country.
Liu Yangwei, chairman of Foxconn, said the capacity of the new Mexico plant would be "very huge," although he did not elaborate. He also mentioned that Foxconn's supply chain is ready for the AI revolution, with manufacturing capabilities including "advanced liquid cooling and cooling technologies" needed for the GB200 server infrastructure.
This expansion comes at a time when the AI market is booming. Foxconn expects its global AI server market share to grow by 40% this year, and the company also believes the business unit could grow to account for more than 40% of its overall server revenue.
In addition, Foxconn is actively seeking to diversify its business, looking to use its technical know-how to provide electric vehicle (EV) contract manufacturing services and produce vehicles using Foxtron brand models. Despite the fierce competition in the global electric vehicle market and slowing demand, Liu said Foxconn remains committed to the area and believes it is right.
The construction of the Mexico factory is a clear example of the decoupling of the global technology supply chain from China, although Foxconn still has several large factory clusters in China, including the world's largest iPhone factory. Mexico is taking advantage of this decoupling to attract companies that want to shorten supply chains with the United States market and take advantage of Mexico's free trade agreement with the world's largest economy to establish operations in the country or announce their intentions.
Overall, Foxconn's new factory in Mexico will further solidify its position as a technology manufacturing giant and could play an important role in emerging technologies such as AI and electric vehicles.
