Apple's biggest assembly partner could transform how your iPhone gets made
If you think artificial intelligence is just on the front of your smartphone, think again. AI is already a huge part of the making of your device and will only become more important.
Foxconn, the Taiwanese electronics giant known for assembling Apple's iPhones, has launched its own large language model to enhance manufacturing and supply chain management.
Named FoxBrain, this model is capable of reasoning, data analysis, mathematics, and code generation, similar to popular AI models like ChatGPT and Google's Gemini. FoxBrain was trained in just four weeks using 120 Nvidia H100 GPUs, with Nvidia providing support through its Taiwan-based supercomputer and technical consulting to help train the model.
Foxconn thinks about open-sourcing FoxBrain to collaborate with industry partners. It envisions FoxBrain driving advancements in manufacturing and supply-chain management, which means FoxBrain should assist during the assembling of future iPhones, too.
Foxconn revealed that FoxBrain is based on Meta's publicly available Llama 3.1 large language model and is Taiwan's first model to feature advanced reasoning capabilities. It's specifically designed and optimized for traditional Chinese, the version of the language used in Taiwan and certain overseas Chinese communities.
While Foxconn mentioned that FoxBrain's performance is slightly behind China's DeepSeek models (which recently gained attention), it is rapidly approaching world-class standards.
Apple and Foxconn have been working together since the early 2000s, and their partnership has enabled Apple to meet the massive production volumes needed to satisfy global demand.
Foxconn unveiling its own AI model comes shortly after news that Apple is teaming up with the company to build AI server factories in the US. Apple plans to construct a 250,000-square-foot facility in Houston, where it will assemble servers for data centers that support Apple Intelligence – its suite of AI features found on the iPhone 15 Pro models and the iPhone 16 series.
Foxconn, the Taiwanese electronics giant known for assembling Apple's iPhones, has launched its own large language model to enhance manufacturing and supply chain management.
Foxconn thinks about open-sourcing FoxBrain to collaborate with industry partners. It envisions FoxBrain driving advancements in manufacturing and supply-chain management, which means FoxBrain should assist during the assembling of future iPhones, too.
In recent months, the deepening of reasoning capabilities and the efficient use of GPUs have gradually become the mainstream development in the field of AI. Our FoxBrain model adopted a very efficient training strategy, focusing on optimizing the training process rather than blindly accumulating computing power. Through carefully designed training methods and resource optimization, we have successfully built a local AI model with powerful reasoning capabilities.
– Dr. Yung-Hui Li, Director of the Artificial Intelligence Research Center at Hon Hai Research Institute, March 2025
While Foxconn mentioned that FoxBrain's performance is slightly behind China's DeepSeek models (which recently gained attention), it is rapidly approaching world-class standards.
Foxconn unveiling its own AI model comes shortly after news that Apple is teaming up with the company to build AI server factories in the US. Apple plans to construct a 250,000-square-foot facility in Houston, where it will assemble servers for data centers that support Apple Intelligence – its suite of AI features found on the iPhone 15 Pro models and the iPhone 16 series.
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