Foxconn and Intrinsic Forge AI-Driven Robotics Venture to Build Intelligent Factory of the Future
Foxconn and Alphabet’s robotics unit Intrinsic have announced a new U.S. based joint venture aimed at bringing the intelligent, AI-enabled, factory of the future to life. As manufacturing enters an era demanding far greater flexibility, adaptability, and cost efficiency, both companies see transformative potential in advanced robotics powered by artificial intelligence.
The multi-phased collaboration seeks to drive a step change in electronics assembly and, ultimately, manufacturing at large. Rather than relying on product-specific automation solutions that must be re-engineered with every product generation, the initiative aims to develop general-purpose intelligent robotics capable of adapting to new tasks with minimal effort. A key ambition is to automate processes that have historically remained manual, laying the groundwork for full factory-level orchestration.
Electronics manufacturing – now experiencing rapid expansion driven by the global AI boom—presents fertile ground for this transformation. Demand for server trays, GPUs, AI server systems, and data-center hardware continues to accelerate. Yet today many AI server production workflows remain a hybrid of rigid automation and intensive manual operations. Persistent challenges in robotics deployment have limited automation across large portions of this growing industry.
To address these gaps, the partnership’s initial focus will span assembly, inspection, machine tending, and logistics applications. Intrinsic’s Flowstate web-based developer environment will act as the shared automation platform for both teams, giving developers access to AI-driven capabilities such as the Intrinsic Vision Model (IVM) to enable new classes of automation previously considered impractical.
Building the Intelligent Factory Together
Young Liu, Chairman and CEO of Foxconn, commented: “In working with Intrinsic, we are able to tap their deep expertise in AI-driven robotics. This synergy complements our global manufacturing leadership, enabling us to collaboratively unlock the factory of the future.”
Wendy Tan White, CEO of Intrinsic, added: “Together we’re working to bring the value of AI into the physical world. By marrying Intrinsic’s expertise in AI-driven robotics software—and Alphabet’s deep experience in applied research and platform development—with Foxconn’s global production capabilities, world-class facilities, and forward-looking vision, we can accelerate the adoption of AI where it is most needed and most valuable.”
Dr. Zhe Shi, Foxconn’s Chief Digital Officer, emphasized the transformative potential: “Intrinsic has led the way in building an AI-integrated platform and scalable AI-enabled robotics. Together, we will ensure Foxconn’s Smart Manufacturing platform can deliver intelligent automation across our factories—from data management to robotics, AI, and digital twins. This will revolutionize our operations, making them even more flexible, adaptable, skill-based, and scalable.”
Overcoming the Limits of Traditional Automation
For decades, manufacturers have depended on either manual labor or rigid, hard-coded automation systems that require significant expertise to develop and maintain. Such systems are cost-prohibitive to modify, making it difficult—often impossible—to rapidly adapt production lines when product designs, customer requirements, or supply chains shift. As a result, manufacturers routinely fall back on manual labor for repetitive tasks simply because it remains the only truly flexible option.
The Foxconn–Intrinsic partnership aims to break this bottleneck by integrating Intrinsic’s AI robotics platform directly with Foxconn’s Smart Manufacturing ecosystem. By combining adaptive robotics, modern AI models, and digital transformation technologies, the joint venture seeks to unlock automation solutions that can learn, adjust, and scale – creating more efficient and sustainable production systems.
Near-term efforts will target high-value applications long considered too complex, too costly, or too variable for automation. The teams intend to demonstrate measurable benefits quickly, setting the stage for broader deployment across Foxconn’s facilities worldwide.
Unlocking the Value of AI-Driven Automation
Both companies share a deep conviction in the transformative potential of intelligent robotics across the manufacturing value chain—from electronics and metal fabrication to automotive and logistics. As practical AI moves from research labs into daily factory operations, the economics of automation are shifting. AI now enables robots to perform tasks once out of reach, reduces the need for custom engineering, and unlocks new pathways for optimization and quality assurance.
The Foxconn–Intrinsic joint venture represents a significant milestone in this broader transition. By uniting AI-first software platforms with one of the world’s largest manufacturing organizations, the partners aim to accelerate the adoption of intelligent automation at industrial scale.
Foxconn and Intrinsic state they are committed to pushing the boundaries of what robotics and AI can achieve – expanding access to intelligent automation and driving new growth opportunities across the global electronics manufacturing sector.
For more information: www.intrinsic.ai
