People take photos with NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 AI server during the Hon Hai Tech Day at the Nangang Exhibition Center in Taipei, Taiwan, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024 as Foxconn showcases its latest electric car and other technology products. AP
People take photos with NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 AI server during the Hon Hai Tech Day at the Nangang Exhibition Center in Taipei, Taiwan, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024 as Foxconn showcases its latest electric car and other technology products. AP

Hon Hai Precision Industry, the main supplier of Nvidia AI servers, posted a 3 percent rise in January sales and strengthened its first-quarter outlook.

Hon Hai, also the world’s largest assembler of Apple’s iPhones, reported revenue of NT$538.7 billion (HK$127.9 billion) last month. The comparison with 2024 was skewed by the fact that the week-long Lunar New Year break fell this year in January, versus February 2024.

As Nvidia’s most important AI server maker, Hon Hai’s performance is a bellwether for the AI infrastructure build-out. It said first-quarter sequential growth, or the increase from the December quarter, would be “better than the average level” of the past five years. That’s a rosier projection than the “roughly similar levels” the company teased last month. Growth on a year-over-year basis will be strong, a better outlook as well than that stated before.

Hon Hai, which ships electronics to the rest of the world from giant production bases in China, is grappling this year with uncertainty surrounding Trump-administration tariffs and the sustainability of the AI boom. While big tech firms from Microsoft to Amazon.com this month pledged to continue spending to keep pace with a revolutionary technology, Chinese startup DeepSeek’s rise has spurred doubts about whether all that infrastructure expenditure is justified.