Alexander Lewis 
Feb 05, 2024
Foxconn. Apple's biggest iPhone assembler and the world's largest contract electronics maker based in Taiwan, says the year 2024 will be "slightly better" in terms of AI chips' demand compared to last year.
The chipmaker also asserted that it's running out of chips for AI servers which might make the production less likely to meet the yet-to-rise demands. However, the company had a "relatively conservative and neutral" outlook for 2024, as per an announcement in November.
While referring to a writedown regarding its 34pc stake in Japanese electronics maker Sharp Corp, Foxconn Chairman Liu Young-way said "we did pretty well last year, although we had a rather large write off in the first quarter."
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"As for this year's outlook, I think it might be slightly better than last year," he responded to reporters when asked about the company's annual employee party in Taipei, according to a Reuters report.
The company chairman expressed contentment when speaking about the demand of artificial intelligence (AI) servers, saying that it will "of course" be good, "but very many others - uh-oh." He further noted that the uncertainty around the global economics and geopolitical problems will have an impact on consumer product demand. "When it comes up to keeping up with demand, perhaps there need to be new factories," he added.
Similarly, Apple predicted a decrease in iPhone sales and anticipated an overall revenue that is $6 billion lower than what Wall Street expected, attributing it to the impact on its China business.
This validates the worries of some analysts who believe that the company's flagship product is facing challenges in the crucial Asian market, where consumers are opting for foldable phones and those from Huawei, which are equipped with a chip made in China. Liu noted that there is a constrained production capacity for server chips, despite the high demand.
