Exclusive-Nvidia, Foxconn in talks to deploy humanoid robots at Houston AI server making plant

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By Wen-Yee Lee

TAIPEI (Reuters) -Taiwan’s Foxconn and U.S. artificial intelligence chips maker Nvidia are in talks to deploy humanoid robots at a new Foxconn factory in Houston that will produce Nvidia AI servers, two sources familiar with the matter said.

This would be the first time that an Nvidia product will be made with the assistance of humanoid robots and would be Foxconn’s first AI server factory to use them on a production line, the sources said.

A deployment, expected to be finalised in the coming months, would mark a milestone in the adoption of the human-like robots that promises to transform manufacturing processes.

Foxconn is developing its own humanoid robots with Nvidia and has also trialed humanoids made by China’s UBTech. The sources said it was not clear what type of humanoid robots are being planned for use in the Houston factory, what they will look like or how many will be deployed initially.

They said the two companies are aiming to have the humanoid robots at work by the first quarter of next year when Foxconn’s new Houston factory will begin production of Nvidia’s GB300 AI servers.

And while it was not clear what exactly the robots will be doing at the factory, Foxconn has been training them to pick and place objects, insert cables and do assembly work, according to a company presentation in May.

Foxconn’s Houston factory was ideally suited to deploy humanoid robots because it will be new and have more space than other existing AI server manufacturing sites, one of the sources said.

Nvidia and Foxconn declined to comment.

The sources did not wish to be identified as they are not authorised to speak to the media.

Leo Guo, general manager of the robotics business unit at Foxconn Industrial Internet, a subsidiary of Foxconn that is in charge of the group’s AI server business, said last month at an industry event in Taipei that Foxconn plans to showcase at the company’s annual technology event in November two versions of humanoid robots that it has developed.

One of those will be with legs and the other will use a wheeled autonomous mobile robot (AMR) base, which would cost less than the version with legs, he said, without disclosing details.

Nvidia announced in April that it planned to build AI supercomputer manufacturing factories in Texas, partnering with Foxconn in Houston and Wistron in Dallas. Both sites are expected to ramp up production within 12 to 15 months.

For Nvidia, using humanoid robots in the manufacturing of its AI servers represents a further push into the technology as it already supplies humanoid makers with a platform they can use to build such robots.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang predicted in March that their wide use in manufacturing facilities was less than five years away.

Automakers such as Germany’s Mercedes-Benz and BMW have tested the use of humanoids on production lines, while Tesla is developing its own. China has also thrown its weight behind humanoids, betting that many factory tasks will eventually be performed by such robots.

(Reporting by Wen-Yee Lee; Editing by Brenda Goh and Muralikumar Anantharaman)