Foxconn, whose official name is Hon Hai Precision Industry, has gone beyond assembling low-margin iPhones to making AI servers for Nvidia, along with electric vehicles and robots.

Soaring global demand for generative AI tools is boosting business for Foxconn, even as the war in the Middle East has threatened supply chain volatility.

On Thursday the company said net profit for January-March came to NT$49.9 billion (US$1.6 billion), up 19% from NT$42.1 billion in the same period the previous year.

The figure beat estimates of US$48.4 billion in a Bloomberg survey of analysts.

Net profit and operating profit were both record highs for the first quarter, said rotating chief executive officer Michael Chiang.

“AI demand continues to grow at a rapid pace,” and for the second quarter “year-on-year growth is expected to be strong”, he told an earnings call.

Chiang cautioned that “the international political and economic landscape (is) still evolving rapidly” with factors such as raw material costs and supply chain adjustments potentially impacting the industry.

But “we remain cautiously optimistic about this year” thanks to the company’s “relatively solid operational resilience”, he said.

Taiwanese contract chipmaker TSMC has also said it does not expect geopolitics to impact its supply of key materials such as helium and hydrogen in the near term.

“Since AI-based industries are still in a growth stage, we expect this development trend to continue… (as for Foxconn) this elephant will continue to dance,” Chiang said Thursday.

On Wednesday, some of Foxconn’s factories in North America suffered a cyberattack, according to a company statement.

“The affected factories are currently resuming normal production,” after a response from the cybersecurity team, said the statement dated Wednesday afternoon in Taiwan.

TechCrunch and other media outlets reported that ransomware gang Nitrogen had claimed responsibility for the hack on the dark web.