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Recently, Foxconn will invest 340 million US dollars in the AI ​​field, and fully promote the transformation of the group into an AI-driven Internet company. However, the saying that "machine substitution" is also circulating in the industry, Foxconn said that the mainland still maintains a scale of more than 1 million people, but allows robots to replace the more dangerous work content in production.
Recently, Foxconn announced that it will make a major investment in artificial intelligence research and development, providing about 342 million US dollars in the next five years, from the AI ​​talent cultivation, IoT industrial field application, big data analysis and other fields, to promote the transformation of the group into an AI-driven industrial Internet. enterprise.
The relevant person in charge of Foxconn told reporters that the company does not simply replace the employees with AI or robots. Instead, it allows the robot to replace the work that is relatively boring, the staff's willingness is not high, and relatively dangerous. The overall employment scale of the company will not change much, and the scale of the company will remain above 1 million for a long time.
It is worth noting that before this transition to the AI ​​field, Foxconn has also made a series of transformation attempts to get rid of the "manufacturing" label, even including the layout of e-commerce, but ultimately ended in failure. So, will Foxconn, which targets the artificial intelligence platform, be successful in transformation?
Recently, Hon Hai Technology Group officially announced the launch of two AI research and cultivation programs: First, the “Honhai Industrial Internet AI Application Research Institute†will be established to assist the group to develop “Industrial Internet + Robotics†AI innovation, providing 10 billion new in the next 5 years. Taiwanese currency (about 342 million US dollars), from the AI ​​talent cultivation, IoT industrial field application, big data analysis and other fields, fully promote the transformation of the group into an AI-driven industrial Internet company; secondly, invite the American genetic scientist Craig Fant Work together to create “Asia Pacific Forward-looking Health Management Servicesâ€.
Guo Taiming, Chairman of Hon Hai Technology Group, said that Hon Hai has started from the physical manufacturing industry and has more than 40 years of experience and technology in the world. Through the toolability of AI, it will build an industry built by “Cloud Moving Material + Robotâ€. Internet AI application ecosystem.
Guo Taiming also stressed: "In the next five years, the Group will invest NT$10 billion in recruiting relevant talents for AI applications and deploying artificial intelligence applications at all production sites."
A related person in charge of Foxconn said that both experts and the industry have previously mentioned the concept of "machine substitution", but Foxconn does not simply replace employees with AI or robots, but replaces robots with production. More boring, less willing staff, relatively dangerous work content, and let the workers liberate from it, improve the ability to become a robot to operate the talent, the company's overall employment scale will not change much.
Frequent transformation attempts to "make manufacturing"Although, Guo Taiming added, Foxconn's goal is to become "a global innovative artificial intelligence platform, not just a manufacturing company." But referring to Foxconn, it still reminiscent of the concept of "Apple's largest mobile phone foundry" because it has more than 50% of its revenue from Apple. As the largest customer of Foxconn, Apple's every move also affects Foxconn's heart.
Different from previous years, the sales of the new iPhone series in 2017 are not ideal. According to Apple’s first-quarter earnings report for the fiscal year 2018, the company sold a total of 77.316 million iPhones, down 1% from the 78.29 million in the same period last year. Not only that, Wall Street Journal, Nikkei News Agency and Wall Street's many investment banks have also made expectations of weak iPhone X demand. "Apple asked suppliers to reduce iPhone X production to 20 million units in the first quarter of this year, while iPhone X reduced production directly. The reason is that sales are weaker than expected."
The third quarter 2017 financial report released by Hon Hai Precision shows that the company's operating income was NT$1,078.8 billion (US$35.75 billion), which was basically the same as that of the same period of last year, but the net profit attributable to the parent company was set in 2008. The biggest decline since the fourth quarter was NT$21 billion (US$696 million), a 39% decrease from the same period last year and far below the original S$3.5 billion expected by Standard & Poor's Global Market Research. In this regard, the outside world interprets it as "Foxconn has been dragged down by Apple."
In fact, Foxconn has already predicted the "hidden danger" of relying on Apple. In recent years, it has repeatedly tried to transform to achieve "de-manufacturing." And Guo Taiming has repeatedly stressed that Foxconn will adjust to the strategic direction of "market sales" in the future. Foxconn insiders have also said that electronic manufacturing has reached a meager profit era, and Hon Hai will pay more attention to the layout of the sales market in the future. However, there is no clear path to what kind of "market sales" will take place. Previously, the outside world saw more of Foxconn's channel expansion, extending from the manufacturing chain to the upstream brands and downstream channels.
On April 2, 2016, Hon Hai Precision announced that it would acquire Sharp for 388.8 billion yen (about RMB 22.47 billion) in exchange for a 66% stake in Sharp. In May of the same year, Hon Hai's subsidiary Fu Zhi Kang Conn was 350 million. The dollar bought Nokia's feature machine business. But even with the two old mobile phones of Sharp and Nokia, Foxconn has not made a big splash in the Chinese mobile phone market.
Looking back, Foxconn also started a new attempt in the field of e-commerce. In April 2013, Guo Taiming established a B2C e-commerce platform, Fulian.com, and cooperated with Alibaba's Tmall to sell Foxconn's “InFocus†brand mobile phones, tablets, notebooks, TVs, digital accessories and other products. . In addition, Foxconn also actively deployed the business of Wonder City, Cyber ​​Digital, Wanma Pentium, and Flying Tiger Tesco, but all ended in failure.
So, can Foxconn, which now targets the artificial intelligence platform, succeed in its transformation? In this regard, the above-mentioned Foxconn-related person in charge said that the transformation of a company must continue to practice and explore, and finally know whether it can be successful, it is more difficult to predict the success rate in advance. But the company will work hard according to the company's goals and direction.
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