OpenAI has partnered with Foxconn to optimize data center design.

The AI giant announced yesterday that its partnership with Foxconn, formally known as Hon Hai Technology, would focus on “design work and US manufacturing readiness for the next generation of AI infrastructure hardware.”

As part of the agreement, the pair will design and develop “multiple generations of AI data center racks” in order to keep up with the compute needs of new models.

They will “work to improve rack architecture so it can be manufactured across the US, broaden sourcing to include more chipsets and domestic suppliers, and expand localized testing and assembly.”

Foxconn has also agreed to manufacture key data center components, including cabling, networking, cooling, and power systems, in the US.

Although the agreement does not contain purchase commitments or financial obligations, OpenAI will “have early access to evaluate these systems and an option to purchase them.”

This is not a new partnership – both companies are already working together on the Stargate project. In August, Foxconn confirmed that it would be manufacturing equipment for the project at a former General Motors factory in Lordstown, Ohio.

This announcement is also the latest in a series of US-based moves that the Taiwan-based electronics manufacturer has made in the past year. In July, the company partnered with the American subsidiary of Taiwanese electric motor company Teco to manufacture modular data centers in the US.

American businesses and the government have urged key Taiwanese semiconductor companies to move their manufacturing to the US amidst concerns that Taiwan’s security situation could jeopardize the global supply chain.

“The infrastructure behind advanced AI is a generational opportunity to reindustrialize America. This partnership is a step toward ensuring the core technologies of the AI era are built here,” said OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

Some of these efforts are beginning to bear fruit. Chip manufacturing giant TSMC announced last month that the first US-made Nvidia Blackwell wafer had been manufactured at the company’s fab in Phoenix, Arizona, and in January, the Taiwanese government lifted restrictions that would have limited the company from producing 2nm chips in foreign fabs.