Apple supplier Foxconn turns upbeat on 2024

TAIPEI, Mar 14 (Reuters): Apple supplier Foxconn has adopted a far more bullish outlook for this year, saying on Thursday that it expected a significant rise in revenue driven by booming demand for artificial intelligence servers.

The upbeat tone comes after a forecast-beating 33 per cent jump in net profit for the fourth quarter. It also contrasts sharply with remarks by Foxconn Chairman Young Liu in November that the world's largest contract electronics maker had "relatively conservative and neutral" expectations for 2024.

"We see very strong demand for AI servers from our clients," Liu told an online earnings conference, adding that he expects the business to have revenue growth of more than 40 per cent this year.

The AI server market was likely to see 30 per cent growth each year between 2023 and 2025, and Foxconn's growth would be in line with that or even higher, he said.

October-December net profit for the Taiwanese company came in at T$53.1 billion ($1.7 billion), handily beating a T$43.5 billion LSEG SmartEstimate.