Foxconn, the world’s largest contract manufacturer of electronics, which is best known as a key supplier for the Apple iPhone, is making a push into…

Foxconn, the world’s largest contract manufacturer of electronics, which is best known as a key supplier for the Apple iPhone, is making a push into industrial technology — such as automating other manufacturers’ processes — as the global smartphone market slows

Speaking on Wednesday at a celebration to mark the Taiwanese company’s 30th anniversary of doing business in China, Foxconn’s founder and chairmanTerry Gou said: “Now we need to use the power of AI?，big data?.?.?to push smart manufacturing with all our strength.”

Foxconn, also called Hon Hai Precision Industry, is best known for producing the majority of Apple’s iPhones. But it is trying to diversify from its traditional smartphone business and reduce its reliance on Apple. Last year, global smartphone sales fell and its profits took a hit from delays in the manufacturing of the iPhone X

Over the past two years, Foxconn has started producing everything from Sharp’s LCD screens, after acquiring the Japanese electronics group for $3.5billion, to internet-connected dockless bicycles for Mobike, and even semiconductors, launching a failed $19.5billion bid for Toshiba’s memory chip business

Wednesday’s event focused on the company’s Foxconn Industrial Internet subsidiary. The unit, which provides industrial robots and cloud computing services to businesses, is hoping to launch the biggest IPO in mainland China for three years, aiming to raise roughly Rmb27 billion ($4.2billion) in Shanghai

FII generated $56billion in revenues last year, compared with $48billion at US internet hardware producer Cisco. Market research firm IDC expects Chinese manufacturers’ spending on “internet of things” products, such as sensors and robots, to reach $128billion by 2020, growing at an average rate of 14.7 per cent a year from 2016 to 2020