TAIPEI, March 14 (Reuters) - Taiwan's Foxconn 2317.TW, the world's largest contract electronics maker, is expected to report on Friday that fourth-quarter profit rose 2.35% on strong demand for artificial intelligence servers.

Net profit for October-December for Apple's AAPL.O top iPhone assembler and Nvidia's NVDA.O AI server maker likely came in at T$54.4 billion ($1.65 billion), according to an LSEG consensus estimate of 15 analysts, versus T$53.15 billion a year earlier.

Foxconn said in January its fourth-quarter revenue jumped 15.2% to a record for that quarter on strong sales of AI servers.

The company, formally called Hon Hai Precision Industry, has said it expects first-quarter performance to be better than the average level of the past five years, and it will see strong year-over-year growth. It does not provide numerical guidance.

But an escalating global trade war has dimmed the prospects for its outlook this year, as it has a major manufacturing presence in China and Mexico, two of the top U.S. trading partners that now face increased import tariffs from U.S. President Donald Trump.

Apple said last month it will work with Foxconn to build a 250,000-square-foot (23,200-square-metre) facility in Houston, where it will assemble servers that go into data centres to power Apple Intelligence.

Foxconn holds its earnings call at 3 p.m. in Taipei (0700GMT) on Friday, where it will also update its outlook for the rest of the year.

Foxconn's shares have fallen 8.7% so far this year, hit by concerns about U.S. tariffs and trade policy.

($1 = 32.9550 Taiwan dollars)

(Reporting by Wen-Yee Lee, Yimou Lee and Faith Hung; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)

((ben.blanchard@thomsonreuters.com;))