AI to drive growth despite geopolitics, Taiwan’s Foxconn says
By AFP
March 16, 2026
Strong demand for AI hardware brought a 24 percent annual net profit jump last year for Foxconn - Copyright AFP I-Hwa Cheng
Taiwanese tech giant Foxconn on Monday said it expected the booming market for artificial intelligence servers to drive growth this year, despite volatility caused by global conflict.
Strong demand for AI hardware fuelled a 24 percent annual net profit jump last year for Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer.
Energy markets have been roiled by the war in the Middle East, raising concerns for big tech manufacturers, but company chairman Young Liu struck an upbeat tone at an earnings call with analysts.
“Over the past few months, there have been significant changes in tariffs, geopolitics, and global monetary policy,” he said.
“However, driven by the strong growth of AI servers, I believe 2026 will still be a very good year, and we expect to see robust growth.”
Foxconn — also known by its official name Hon Hai Precision Industry — has gone beyond assembling low-margin Apple iPhones to making AI servers for Nvidia along with electric vehicles and robotics.
It’s a move that is paying off as tech firms worldwide race to spend big on training and deploying rapidly evolving AI systems.
In 2025, Foxconn’s net profit came to NT$189.4 billion ($5.9 billion), up from NT$152.7 billion in 2024.
Revenue jumped 18 percent on-year to NT$8.1 trillion, the firm said, just beating the estimates of a Bloomberg survey of economists.
– AI ambitions –
Sky-high tech share results and valuations worldwide have led to concerns of an AI market bubble that could eventually burst.
But Foxconn on Monday forecast “strong AI server demand” with “high double-digit quarter-on-quarter growth” expected for AI rack shipments in the first quarter of 2026.
Liu said the company wanted to become “the most trusted industrial platform of the AI era”.
Cloud and networking services accounted for 40 percent of Foxconn’s business portfolio in 2025, up from 30 percent in 2024.
Meanwhile, smart consumer electronics declined from 46 percent to 38 percent.
Huge global demand for memory chips to use in AI data centres has caused a shortage that is threatening higher prices for everyday gadgets.
“Everyone is concerned about memory shortages and related price hikes” fors smart consumer products, Liu said Monday.
But “since our product portfolio is mainly composed of higher-priced models, the impact we’ve observed so far has been relatively limited” while demand has not changed, he added.
Ahead of Monday’s earnings release, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Steven Tseng told AFP that for Foxconn, “so far the impact from the Middle East conflict appears largely manageable”.
“As the region is not a major market for either AI hardware or smartphones, the main risk is more on costs than demand, driven by higher oil prices and some logistic disruptions,” he said.
By AFP
March 16, 2026
Strong demand for AI hardware brought a 24 percent annual net profit jump last year for Foxconn - Copyright AFP I-Hwa Cheng
Taiwanese tech giant Foxconn on Monday said it expected the booming market for artificial intelligence servers to drive growth this year, despite volatility caused by global conflict.
Strong demand for AI hardware fuelled a 24 percent annual net profit jump last year for Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer.
Energy markets have been roiled by the war in the Middle East, raising concerns for big tech manufacturers, but company chairman Young Liu struck an upbeat tone at an earnings call with analysts.
“Over the past few months, there have been significant changes in tariffs, geopolitics, and global monetary policy,” he said.
“However, driven by the strong growth of AI servers, I believe 2026 will still be a very good year, and we expect to see robust growth.”
Foxconn — also known by its official name Hon Hai Precision Industry — has gone beyond assembling low-margin Apple iPhones to making AI servers for Nvidia along with electric vehicles and robotics.
It’s a move that is paying off as tech firms worldwide race to spend big on training and deploying rapidly evolving AI systems.
In 2025, Foxconn’s net profit came to NT$189.4 billion ($5.9 billion), up from NT$152.7 billion in 2024.
Revenue jumped 18 percent on-year to NT$8.1 trillion, the firm said, just beating the estimates of a Bloomberg survey of economists.
– AI ambitions –
Sky-high tech share results and valuations worldwide have led to concerns of an AI market bubble that could eventually burst.
But Foxconn on Monday forecast “strong AI server demand” with “high double-digit quarter-on-quarter growth” expected for AI rack shipments in the first quarter of 2026.
Liu said the company wanted to become “the most trusted industrial platform of the AI era”.
Cloud and networking services accounted for 40 percent of Foxconn’s business portfolio in 2025, up from 30 percent in 2024.
Meanwhile, smart consumer electronics declined from 46 percent to 38 percent.
Huge global demand for memory chips to use in AI data centres has caused a shortage that is threatening higher prices for everyday gadgets.
“Everyone is concerned about memory shortages and related price hikes” fors smart consumer products, Liu said Monday.
But “since our product portfolio is mainly composed of higher-priced models, the impact we’ve observed so far has been relatively limited” while demand has not changed, he added.
Ahead of Monday’s earnings release, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Steven Tseng told AFP that for Foxconn, “so far the impact from the Middle East conflict appears largely manageable”.
“As the region is not a major market for either AI hardware or smartphones, the main risk is more on costs than demand, driven by higher oil prices and some logistic disruptions,” he said.
By AFP
March 19, 2026
China's tech titans, including Alibaba, are racing to develop AI agents - Copyright AFP HECTOR RETAMAL
China’s Alibaba said Thursday that revenue from AI-related products showed strong momentum, even as the tech giant reported a 66 percent year-on-year drop in quarterly net profit.
Alibaba, which runs some of China’s biggest online shopping platforms, has seen its core e-commerce business squeezed by price wars and sluggish consumption in the world’s second largest economy.
It is ploughing tens of billions of dollars into artificial intelligence — with its shareholders keen to see how the company will approach the tricky task of monetising these huge investments.
“AI is and will continue to be one of our primary growth engines,” CEO Eddie Wu said Thursday, noting that revenue from Alibaba’s Cloud Intelligence Group was up 36 percent on-year in October-December.
Net profit plunged 66 percent to 15.6 billion yuan ($2.2 billion) primarily due to a “decrease in income from operations”, the firm said.
Total revenue for the period stood at 284.8 billion yuan, missing the estimates of a Bloomberg survey of economists.
China’s tech titans, including Alibaba, are racing to develop AI agents — tools that execute real-life tasks such as sending emails or booking flights, touted as the technology’s next frontier after text and image generators.
This week, Alibaba announced an AI agent for businesses called Wukong, currently in beta testing.
It follows the unexpected boom in popularity in China of OpenClaw, an agent tool created by an Austrian researcher that has fascinated programmers worldwide despite cybersecurity concerns.
Alibaba’s open-source “Qwen” AI models are popular with programmers worldwide, and CEO Wu said Thursday that Qwen’s consumer interface had surpassed 300 million monthly active users.
The company is bringing its AI development and services teams together under the so-called “Alibaba Token Hub”, with the restructuring seen as a bid to focus on profitability.
Max Liu, an AI entrepreneur who has worked with several local AI startup teams, told AFP that Alibaba’s “previous structure was too dispersed, making it hard for all departments to work together”.
The OpenClaw phenomenon in China has led big tech companies, including Alibaba, to recognise that “token” — a unit of AI computing power — is becoming a new type of utility, much like water and electricity, Liu said.
China tech giant Tencent bets on AI agents
By AFP
March 18, 2026
So far Tencent has been seen as a cautious artificial intelligence player - Copyright AFP Adek BERRY
Luna Lin, with Katie Forster in Tokyo
Tencent wants to bring artificial intelligence agents into its WeChat social media app, the Chinese tech firm’s president said on Wednesday, a move that could change how hundreds of millions of users interact with the platform in the Asian nation and beyond.
Agents — programmes that execute real-life tasks such as sending emails or booking flights — are being touted as AI’s next frontier after chatbots such as ChatGPT.
Their incorporation into WeChat may alter how people in the world’s second-largest economy use the so-called “super-app” that already boasts social messaging, digital payments and a long list of other features.
Tencent, also the world’s largest video game publisher, reported a 16 percent jump in full-year net profit on Wednesday, with gaming still the main business driver even as it extends its AI push.
The company has sought in recent years to integrate AI into WeChat, known as Weixin in China.
“We hope to create AI agents in Weixin, which could leverage Weixin’s close connection with users,” company president Martin Lau told reporters.
“It will be a highly diverse ecosystem, encompassing mini-programs, content, commerce, social networking and payments,” Lau added, without giving details such as when the service would become available.
On Wednesday, Tencent said net profit for 2025 came to 224.8 billion yuan ($32.6 billion), beating estimates of 221.9 billion yuan in a Bloomberg survey of economists.
The company, which owns the developer of popular eSports including “League of Legends”, has sizeable operations in other sectors from cloud computing to entertainment.
Despite being China’s most valuable tech company by market capitalisation, so far Tencent has been seen as a cautious AI player, although founder Pony Ma has vowed to increase investment in the sector.
“Our highly resilient and cash generative core businesses provides us with the resources to fund our increasing investments in AI,” Ma said in a statement Wednesday.
– Agent fever –
Like its rivals Alibaba, Baidu and ByteDance, Tencent has recently branched out into the world of AI agents with its WorkBuddy app.
The Shenzhen-based company has also been among the Chinese tech giants racing to take advantage of a surge in interest in the country in OpenClaw — an AI agent platform created by an Austrian programmer that has fascinated the tech world.
Tencent and others are offering simplified installation and affordable coding plans to help users host OpenClaw agents on cloud servers.
Earlier this month the company’s cloud computing arm organised an OpenClaw setup event at its headquarters, which drew more than 1,000 attendees, with similar events planned across China.
The increasing capabilities of Tencent’s main large-language AI model, and AI agent tools such as WorkBuddy and new offering QClaw, “are encouraging early signs that these investments will unlock new opportunities”, the company said.
The Financial Times reported this month that the White House was debating whether Tencent’s investment in US and Finnish gaming groups pose a national security risk.
Discussions over its stakes in “Fortnite” creator Epic Games, Riot Games and Supercell revolve around the implications for US user data privacy, the British newspaper said, citing people familiar with the matter.
“We have been engaged in constructive discussions with the relevant US regulators for quite some time now,” said Tencent president Lau.
“Things are moving in a positive direction” with the overall risk “manageable”, he said.
“While there are due processes to be followed in the US, other regions are actually very keen for us to invest in gaming companies.”
By AFP
March 18, 2026
So far Tencent has been seen as a cautious artificial intelligence player - Copyright AFP Adek BERRY
Luna Lin, with Katie Forster in Tokyo
Tencent wants to bring artificial intelligence agents into its WeChat social media app, the Chinese tech firm’s president said on Wednesday, a move that could change how hundreds of millions of users interact with the platform in the Asian nation and beyond.
Agents — programmes that execute real-life tasks such as sending emails or booking flights — are being touted as AI’s next frontier after chatbots such as ChatGPT.
Their incorporation into WeChat may alter how people in the world’s second-largest economy use the so-called “super-app” that already boasts social messaging, digital payments and a long list of other features.
Tencent, also the world’s largest video game publisher, reported a 16 percent jump in full-year net profit on Wednesday, with gaming still the main business driver even as it extends its AI push.
The company has sought in recent years to integrate AI into WeChat, known as Weixin in China.
“We hope to create AI agents in Weixin, which could leverage Weixin’s close connection with users,” company president Martin Lau told reporters.
“It will be a highly diverse ecosystem, encompassing mini-programs, content, commerce, social networking and payments,” Lau added, without giving details such as when the service would become available.
On Wednesday, Tencent said net profit for 2025 came to 224.8 billion yuan ($32.6 billion), beating estimates of 221.9 billion yuan in a Bloomberg survey of economists.
The company, which owns the developer of popular eSports including “League of Legends”, has sizeable operations in other sectors from cloud computing to entertainment.
Despite being China’s most valuable tech company by market capitalisation, so far Tencent has been seen as a cautious AI player, although founder Pony Ma has vowed to increase investment in the sector.
“Our highly resilient and cash generative core businesses provides us with the resources to fund our increasing investments in AI,” Ma said in a statement Wednesday.
– Agent fever –
Like its rivals Alibaba, Baidu and ByteDance, Tencent has recently branched out into the world of AI agents with its WorkBuddy app.
The Shenzhen-based company has also been among the Chinese tech giants racing to take advantage of a surge in interest in the country in OpenClaw — an AI agent platform created by an Austrian programmer that has fascinated the tech world.
Tencent and others are offering simplified installation and affordable coding plans to help users host OpenClaw agents on cloud servers.
Earlier this month the company’s cloud computing arm organised an OpenClaw setup event at its headquarters, which drew more than 1,000 attendees, with similar events planned across China.
The increasing capabilities of Tencent’s main large-language AI model, and AI agent tools such as WorkBuddy and new offering QClaw, “are encouraging early signs that these investments will unlock new opportunities”, the company said.
The Financial Times reported this month that the White House was debating whether Tencent’s investment in US and Finnish gaming groups pose a national security risk.
Discussions over its stakes in “Fortnite” creator Epic Games, Riot Games and Supercell revolve around the implications for US user data privacy, the British newspaper said, citing people familiar with the matter.
“We have been engaged in constructive discussions with the relevant US regulators for quite some time now,” said Tencent president Lau.
“Things are moving in a positive direction” with the overall risk “manageable”, he said.
“While there are due processes to be followed in the US, other regions are actually very keen for us to invest in gaming companies.”
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