OpenAI is partnering with Taiwan’s Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer, to design and build artificial intelligence data center components in the United States. The AI startup’s latest announcement relates to its large-scale infrastructure development plans.
Financial terms were not disclosed, but OpenAI said in an announcement Thursday that it plans to get early access to evaluate systems produced by Foxconn and the option to purchase them. The companies said their goal is to accelerate infrastructure development while securing long-term production capacity in the United States.
Under the agreement, OpenAI and Foxconn will co-develop multiple generations of AI servers in parallel, while manufacturing core components such as power, networking and cooling systems at Foxconn’s U.S. facilities. The company’s website says it has factories in Wisconsin, Ohio, Texas, Virginia and Indiana.
“This partnership is a step toward ensuring that the core technologies of the AI era are built here,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a statement, calling AI infrastructure “a generational opportunity to reindustrialize America.”
OpenAI has recently negotiated contracts with many of the world’s largest technology companies and announced spending of about $1.4 trillion, raising concerns about whether the startup will generate enough returns to justify those investments. Altman said earlier this month that the company’s annual sales will reach $20 billion by the end of this year and hundreds of billions of dollars by 2030.
Previous deals include an announced but unconfirmed $100 billion agreement. Nvidia Chipmakers will invest in OpenAI in stages as they build out their infrastructure. OpenAI also has cloud partnerships. microsoft, google and Amazon and a commitment to building large amounts of computing. oracle.
Foxconn will add a manufacturing layer, further localizing OpenAI’s supply chain and potentially accelerating the pace of deployment. This company is best known for assembling apple’s In addition to the iPhone, the company is also expanding into AI and car manufacturing. The company builds server racks for AI workloads and is a major global supplier to Nvidia, a leading manufacturer of high-end AI chips.
“Foxconn is uniquely positioned to support OpenAI’s mission with reliable, scalable infrastructure,” said Chairman Young Liu.
But the company has a checkered history in the United States. In 2018, Foxconn broke ground on what would become a large factory in Wisconsin to make flat panel displays. That project failed, and Microsoft is now building an AI data center.
WATCH: Anthropic adds $50 billion to AI debt pile with new US data center push
