Recommended Free Tools
Foxconn expected significant growth in 2024, but it did not expect a smartphone boom to provide the lift. In March, chairman Young Liu pointed to demand for AI servers and said that business could grow by more than 40% during the year. The forecast was about diversification—not an end to iPhone manufacturing. Foxconn’s reported results later showed record revenue, with cloud and networking among its strong-growth businesses.
What Foxconn forecast in March 2024
Foxconn’s outlook became more optimistic over the first months of 2024. In February, the company described expected business conditions as “slightly better” while warning that shortages of AI chips could constrain server production, according to Reuters’ report on the earlier outlook.
By March, Foxconn had upgraded its full-year view from “neutral” to “significant growth.” Liu said the company expected AI-server revenue to grow by more than 40% in 2024. Foxconn did not give a precise percentage target for growth in total company revenue in that initial forecast. The upgrade was tied primarily to AI servers, not to a broad rebound in phones; Reuters’ account of Liu’s comments described strong AI-server demand as the key driver. Foxconn’s first-quarter 2024 results and outlook provide the company’s own context.
What Foxconn makes beyond smartphones
Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai, reports across four broad product pillars: smart consumer electronics, cloud and networking, computing products, and components and other products. Its products and services overview describes cloud and networking as encompassing servers, communications equipment, edge-computing systems, data-center equipment, and satellite communications products.
Free tools Windows power users keep installed
One-click scans. No signup required.
#1 Best Overall
- 【Powerful Load-bearing】12U Network Rack Open Frame is constructed from durable cold rolled steel; Rack shelf supports enhance stability, wall-mounted capacity of 130lbs, the ground-mounted up to 260lbs
- 【Considerate Designs】Open-frame layout, including a top panel adding space, anti-slip shelf stops fixing devices and compatible racks for stack and expansion to meet requirements of home server rack
- 【Complete Accessories】A 12U open frame server rack, two ventilated shelves, four shelf stops, four velcro straps and a set of equipment mounting screws
- 【Versatile Application】Ideal for space-efficient multi-device setups in warehouses, retail, classrooms, offices and more; Excellent choices as AV Rack/IT Rack
- 【Effortless Setup】 Network Rack includes hardware, a comprehensive manual, mounting hole drilling template and an online assembly video to simplify setup
These categories are broader than individual devices or customers. Smart consumer electronics includes smartphones, but Foxconn does not generally break out revenue from assembling Apple iPhones as a separate public line item. Likewise, a rise in its cloud-and-networking category cannot be attributed solely to AI servers without a more detailed breakdown.
Why the AI boom suited Foxconn
Generative-AI services depend on data-center infrastructure: high-performance servers, networking equipment, racks, power systems, cooling, and related components. Producing that hardware at scale calls for supply-chain coordination, systems integration, manufacturing capacity, and customer-specific engineering—capabilities that overlap with Foxconn’s established electronics-manufacturing business.
Foxconn is one participant in a wider supply chain, not the maker of every component in an AI server. Chip designers, semiconductor manufacturers, memory suppliers, networking companies, and cloud providers all have roles. The opportunity for Foxconn is to build and integrate systems and related equipment as customers expand their computing capacity. That can make AI infrastructure a growth engine even when demand for consumer devices is comparatively subdued.
Rank #2
- Space Saving: Maximum depth: 14.8". Use the wall mount network cabinet to maximize available space for retail locations, classrooms, back offices, network cabinets, and other locations where space is limited.
- Fast Heat Dissipation: The server cabinet is designed with vents to optimize airflow and avoid critical IT equipment overheating. Heat sink holes in the top, bottom, and rear panels are more conducive to heat dissipation.
- Sturdy Construction: Robust welded frame construction for durability and long service life. With 100 lbs wall-mounted load capacity and 200 lbs ground-mounted load capacity, you can place multiple devices in the server rack cabinet as needed.
- High Security: The locked glass door ensures the security of data and equipment. Wall mount rack enclosure server cabinet is ideal for use in public places such as offices, effectively protecting the security of your devices.
- Hassle-free Installation: Fully adjustable square-hole mounting rails of the wall mount server cabinet facilitate device installation. Wiring holes on the top, bottom, and rear panels provide you with easy cable routing.
What the 2024 figures said about servers and consumer devices
Foxconn said AI-server revenue in the first quarter of 2024 had grown by nearly 200% year over year, and it expected that revenue to improve quarter by quarter. The company’s figures are reported in its first-quarter results. By its third-quarter update, Foxconn said cumulative AI-server revenue for the first nine months had increased by more than 200% year over year; general-server revenue was up by more than 20%, according to its third-quarter 2024 results. These are growth rates for server businesses, not for Foxconn’s total revenue.
Do these 3 things before closing this tab:
1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsThe broader segment updates showed a different pace for consumer electronics. In Foxconn’s first-half report, cumulative smart consumer-electronics revenue declined slightly year over year, while cloud and networking, computing products, and components and other products performed more strongly. Foxconn noted that the comparison was affected in part by production and shipment timing around its Zhengzhou factory. Its June 2024 segment report gives the period’s figures. In the third quarter, the company reported strong growth in cloud and networking, computing, and components and other products, while smart consumer electronics was flat year over year; see the September 2024 segment report.
Those category results do not measure iPhone sales directly. Apple’s own iPhone revenue or sales outlook is not a substitute for Foxconn’s revenue from manufacturing: the companies report different things, and Foxconn’s public figures do not isolate Apple’s products. iPhones remained important to Foxconn, but the company’s 2024 growth case did not depend on a major smartphone surge.
Rank #3
- Adjustable Depth: 23-40'' adjustable depth is used for servers and network equipment, ensuring enough space for AV equipment, components, and cabling, while allowing you to access ports and equipment from multiple sides.
- Strong Load Capacity: Ground-Mounted Load Capacity: 500 lbs, Wall-Mounted Load Capacity: 150 lbs. The av rack is made of carbon steel for better weldability performance and can help save space while meeting your need to place multiple devices.
- User-friendly Design: Ergonomic design makes the open frame av rack easier to use. The additional top panel is able to place other items with more available space. Roller design moves anywhere and anytime, is convenient, and is more energy-saving.
- Complete Accessories: We provide the accessories you need, including 2 x Pallets, 145 x M5*10 Cross Head Screws, 4 x Casters, 4 x M10*50 Expansion Screws,10 x M6*12 Cage Nuts, 1 x Grounding Wire, 1 x User Manual.
- Wide Application: The server rack wall mount maximizes the use of available space, suitable for retail venues, classrooms, offices, and other places where space is limited.
How the forecast held up by year-end
On March 14, 2025, Foxconn reported full-year 2024 revenue of NT$6.86 trillion, up 11.3% year over year, and net profit of NT$152.7 billion, up 7.5%. Earnings per share were NT$11.01, which the company described as a 17-year high. Foxconn called revenue a record and said actual performance exceeded expectations. Its full-year and fourth-quarter results said three of its four major product segments—cloud and networking, computing, and components and other products—had strong growth.
The outcome supports the direction of the March forecast: infrastructure and other businesses, rather than a broad smartphone upswing, were central to Foxconn’s expansion. But the full-year release does not provide a clean breakdown of how much of the NT$6.86 trillion came from AI servers, iPhones, or any other individual product. It would therefore be inaccurate to credit AI servers alone with all of the 11.3% increase.
Diversification means more than AI servers
AI infrastructure was the clear near-term driver in Foxconn’s 2024 outlook. The company’s wider strategy also reaches into electric vehicles, robotics, semiconductors, digital health, smart manufacturing, and next-generation communications. Its company profile identifies AI, semiconductors, and next-generation communications as strategic technologies alongside its four product pillars.
Rank #4
- An intelligent fan system designed for cooling audio video, DJ, server, network, and IT equipment racks.
- Protects rack-mount equipment from overheating, performance issues, and shortened lifespans.
- Programmable thermostat controller with automated speed control, alarm warnings, and backup memory.
- Premium anodized aluminum construction with CNC-machined detailing for a professional appearance.
- Size: 1U Rack Space | Design: Top Exhaust | Airflow: 60 to 300 CFM | Noise: 12 to 38 dBA | Bearings: Dual Ball
Electric vehicles were part of that longer-term diversification pitch, not the stated source of the 2024 growth forecast. Foxconn said it wanted to apply its manufacturing model to EVs and pursue opportunities in Southeast Asia, the United States, and Europe, as reported by Reuters coverage of its EV ambitions. The cited reporting does not establish a specific 2024 EV revenue contribution.
This is a broadening of Foxconn’s customer and product base, not a clean break with Apple. A new business does not erase the importance of existing iPhone work, and moving into areas such as EVs requires different engineering, customers, certification, and after-sales capabilities. Foxconn is seeking additional growth engines while retaining its role in consumer electronics.
What could limit the AI-server growth story
- Chip supply: Foxconn’s early-2024 warning about AI-chip shortages showed how component availability could constrain production, even when customer demand is strong.
- Customer concentration and cycles: AI-server demand is tied to a relatively concentrated group of major cloud and technology buyers. Data-center spending can accelerate rapidly, but it is also cyclical.
- Infrastructure demands: AI-server production involves demanding testing and greater power, water, and gas requirements than some conventional electronics manufacturing, Foxconn noted in its first-quarter 2024 results.
- Thin margins: Revenue growth does not automatically mean comparable profit growth. Foxconn reported a 2.92% operating margin and a 2.23% net margin for 2024 in its annual results.
- Geopolitical exposure: A global manufacturing network faces risks from tariffs, export controls, China-Taiwan tensions, and customers’ requests to localize production.
- Smartphone seasonality: Even as Foxconn pursues other businesses, Apple product cycles can still affect quarterly manufacturing revenue. Diversification reduces dependence; it does not make consumer-device demand irrelevant.
Foxconn’s AI-server market position also needs attribution. Reuters reported the company’s claim that it held more than 40% of the AI-server market, but that figure is Foxconn’s own estimate, not an independently established industry-wide measurement in the cited reporting. See Reuters’ coverage of the second-quarter results.
The practical takeaway
“Not from building iPhones” is shorthand for a change in the growth story, not a claim that Foxconn stopped building iPhones or that phone production necessarily declined throughout 2024. The company expected cloud infrastructure—especially AI servers—to grow faster than its mature consumer-electronics business. Its later results showed record revenue and strong growth across several non-consumer segments, while leaving the precise contribution of AI servers and iPhone assembly undisclosed.
Quick Recap
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
