Foxconn chairman says AI boom still has time to go as LLMs evolve

The boom in corporate investment into artificial intelligence infrastructure still has some way to go as large language models are continuing to evolve, according to the CEO of Foxconn, a key supplier to Apple.

Speaking with CNBC’s Emily Tan, Chief Executive and Chairman of Foxconn Young Liu, said that the AI boom “still has some time to go” as advanced language models from the likes of OpenAI are becoming increasingly intelligent with each new iteration that comes out.

He said that the general movement in the tech industry today is trending toward a form of AI that is as intelligent — if not more intelligent — than humans. This type of AI is referred to in the industry as “AGI,” or Artificial General Intelligence.

“We … heard about AGI, and we’ll talk about different levels of intelligence. If you divide [intelligence] into four different levels, we’re at level two. There’s still level three and level four to go,” Liu told CNBC in an interview that aired Tuesday.

OpenAI is one of the leading companies pushing for AGI. Sam Altman, CEO of the Microsoft-backed startup, has previously said AGI will be developed in the “reasonably close-ish future,” however he’s also said he thinks it will “change jobs much less than we all think.”

The company, which released its upgraded GPT-4o model this summer, revealed last week that it had raised $6.6 billion at a $157 billion valuation. OpenAI is still working toward releasing its next-generation LLM, GPT-5, however it’s yet to share timing on when the new language model will launch.

Liu said that progress toward increasingly intelligent AI can only be a good thing for the AI server industry, which has been a key boon to Foxconn’s growth this year.

“I think for the AI server industry, I think we still have some time to grow,” Liu added. “With the AGI capability growing, the age [of] AI devices will be another industry we should watch carefully.”

Foxconn, which trades as Hon Hai locally in China and Taiwan, is the world’s largest contract manufacturer for the electronics industry. The firm produces and assembles Apple products, including about two out of every three iPhones.

On Saturday, Foxconn said that it reported better-than-expected sales figures. The firm said its revenues came in at 1.85 trillion Taiwanese dollars ($57.5 billion) in the September quarter, up 20.2% year-over-year. That “exceeded the company’s original expectations of significant growth,” according to Foxconn.

The strong performance came off the back of heightened demand for AI servers, which Foxconn manufactures for several major global tech giants, including Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Nvidia.

The company is currently on track to ship Nvidia’s next-generation Blackwell GPU (graphics processing unit), an advanced AI server chip, in the fourth quarter of 2024, Liu…