Taiwanese Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., known as Foxconn, reported first-quarter revenue of $66.6 billion, a 29.7% increase year‑over‑year. The company’s detailed quarterly report, published on Thursday, showed net profit after tax of $1.58 billion, a 19% rise year‑over‑year and about a 2.1% positive surprise relative to analysts at the London LSEG exchange group.
The profit improvement was driven largely by global demand for infrastructure supporting artificial intelligence (AI) applications: production for data centers and networking equipment now accounts for nearly half of Foxconn’s total revenue. The company expects continued strengthening of demand for AI servers, though it did not provide numerical guidance.
Shifting production and geopolitical risks
In comments accompanying the report, Chief Executive Officer Michael Chiang said Foxconn sees itself among the winners of the AI boom, but warned about macroeconomic uncertainty, heightened geopolitical tensions and the war in the Middle East as potential risks to operations. The company aims to maintain a neutral stance amid U.S.–China economic and trade frictions.
Accordingly, Foxconn has relocated some production: Apple devices destined for the U.S. market have been moved from China to India, and to avoid U.S. extra tariffs, servers ordered by Nvidia are being shifted to Mexico and Texas, where new assembly plants are being built.
Electric vehicle bets and a previous factory sale
Foxconn has also tried to expand in the electric vehicle (EV) market, which it regards as a future growth area, though not without setbacks. In 2022 the company intervened at Lordstown Motors in Ohio but ultimately did not provide additional pledged funding, and Lordstown Motors later joined the list of failed EV startups.
A partly completed production site tied to that effort remained with Foxconn until it was sold last August: Crescent Dune, an entity associated with Japan’s SoftBank, acquired the property for $375 million with plans to convert the former General Motors plant for AI-server and data‑center infrastructure manufacturing under the Stargate AI project. Foxconn will also use the site as a manufacturing tenant; it had previously purchased the property for about $230 million.
Investments, automation and workforce
Chiang emphasized that Foxconn continues significant investments, focused on expanding regional manufacturing capacity and moving forward on automation. Last year the company increased its capital expenditure budget by 27% to $5.5 billion, and plans to lift that budget by at least another 30% this year.
Foxconn is one of the world’s largest private employers: last year it directly employed 826,000 full‑time workers globally, and total headcount including contingent workers sometimes approaches 1.3 million.
Market reaction
Following the results, Foxconn’s stock has risen about 6% so far this year, and roughly 50% over the past twelve months. The company’s market valuation could, the report suggests, be even stronger given the reported performance.
In summary: Foxconn’s first‑quarter results were powered by strong demand for AI servers and data‑center equipment, while the company is responding to geopolitical and trade risks through production shifts and increased investment in regional capacity and automation.
