Major iPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry, also known as Foxconn, on Friday pledged to dedicate a minimum of $342 million to turn itself into a key artificial intelligence player as the Taiwanese tech conglomerate eyes new growth opportunities beyond smartphones. "We will at least invest some 10 billion New Taiwan dollars ($342 million) over five years to recruit top talent and deploy artificial intelligence applications in all the manufacturing sites," said Chairman Terry Gou. "It's likely that we could even pour in some $10 billion or more if we find the deployments are very successful or can really generate results," said Gou. Gou added that his company aimed to recruit up to 100 top AI experts globally and would open up thousands of jobs for young talent should they have good ideas on how to develop applications using machine learning and deep learning techniques. His team is already looking globally for different types of sensors that can be built into production line equipment to better sense, capture and process data, according to Gou. "We will become a global innovative AI platform rather than just a manufacturing company," said Gou. Foxconn's move to invest heavily in AI comes as it faces mounting challenges to grow its core manufacturing business as global smartphone demand slows. Although its largest customer Apple on Feb. 1 reported record revenue for the last holiday season quarter, the US tech group sold fewer units of the iPhone X than expected and gave a weak outlook for the current quarter.