Young Liu, chairman of Foxconn, said that Taiwanese contract manufacturers account for 90% of the global AI server market, with Foxconn supplying at least 40%.

Liu credited Taiwan’s dominance to its robust and geographically concentrated supply chain, unlike the more dispersed systems in other countries.

He also highlighted the US$500 billion Stargate Project, backed by OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle, as a major opportunity for Taiwan’s AI industry.

Foxconn’s AI products include GPUs, servers, system assembly, and liquid-cooling solutions. The company focuses on hardware-software integration, AI data center supply chains, and generative AI for manufacturing, vehicles, and smart cities.

Foxconn is advancing smart manufacturing, EVs, and AI-based urban planning, and will partner with Nvidia to build an advanced computing center in Kaohsiung.

🔗 Source: Taipei Times

🧠 Food for thought

1️⃣ Taiwan’s remarkable transformation from basic computing to AI manufacturing dominance

Taiwan’s current AI leadership represents the culmination of a 60-year technological evolution from simple data processing to advanced manufacturing.

The journey began in the early 1960s when Taiwan was just entering the computing age with basic keypunch operations for agricultural surveys, using IBM machines transported by ox carts due to narrow streets 1.

By the 1980s, Taiwan had established itself as a manufacturing powerhouse, and today produces 70% of the world’s integrated circuits and 90% of global laptops, creating the foundation for its current AI capabilities 2.

This manufacturing expertise has directly translated to AI server production, with Taiwanese contract manufacturers now accounting for 90% of the global AI server market according to Hon Hai chairman Young Liu.

The country’s success stems from its strategic economic policies: starting with import substitution, then shifting to export promotion, and finally specializing in high-value computing components, creating a complete ecosystem that competitors find difficult to replicate 3.

2️⃣ Taiwan’s geographic compactness creates unique AI manufacturing advantages

Taiwan’s concentrated supply chain enables a level of manufacturing efficiency that gives it a distinct edge in the rapidly evolving AI hardware market.

As Liu highlighted, Taiwan’s manufacturers can reach each other within 1.5 hours, creating a density of collaboration that accelerates development cycles and problem-solving compared to more geographically dispersed competitors.

Recent Foxconn developments