Nvidia adds Hyundai, BYD, other automakers to AV business

Nvidia is expanding deals for its autonomous vehicle development business to Hyundai Motor, Nissan Motor and Isuzu, as well as Chinese automakers BYD and Geely, the software and chip giant announced Monday.

The new tie-ups are for Nvidia’s “Drive Hyperion” platform for AVs. The system helps companies develop and deploy driver-assist and autonomous driving capabilities for “Level 4” AVs, which are capable of driving without human intervention under predefined areas or circumstances.

“We’ve been working on self-driving cars for a long time. The ChatGPT moment of self-driving cars has arrived,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said Monday during the company’s GTC conference. “We now know we could successfully autonomously drive cars, and today, we are announcing four new partners for Nvidia’s robotaxi-ready platform. … The number of robotaxi-ready cars in the future are going to be incredible.”

No vehicles on sale to consumers today are capable of driving themselves without human monitoring or intervention, but some companies, such as Alphabet’s Waymo, offer ride-hailing fleets with Level 4 self-driving vehicles, also known as robotaxis. Most vehicles on sale today are considered Level 2, with drivers needing to continually monitor the systems.

Drive Hyperion is part of what Nvidia calls its “end-to-end” AV platform that includes data center training, large-scale simulations and in-vehicle computing. The company does not produce or sell AVs or many of the components needed to operate such vehicles.

Current Nvidia customers for Drive Hyperion include many self-driving companies such as Aurora and Nuro, as well as other more consumer-facing businesses such as Sony Group, Uber Technologies, Jeep parent Stellantis and electric vehicle maker Lucid Group.

AVs are important to Nvidia, as self-driving cars remain one of the primary areas where the chipmaker can show growth outside of artificial intelligence.

Many believe AI could be key to the proliferation of AVs, which Wall Street analysts and automotive executives have targeted as a multitrillion-dollar growth industry.

The new companies add to a growing list of such tie-ups for Nvidia, as the chipmaker and the automotive and technology industries try to capitalize on and proliferate AVs after years of failed ventures for robotaxis.

Waymo has led the AV industry for years, while others such as Tesla, Uber and Amazon’s Zoox attempt to catch up.

General Motors-backed Cruise, which was previously viewed as a leader alongside Waymo, disbanded amid controversies after a pedestrian was dragged by one of its vehicles in San Francisco. GM spent more than $10 billion on Cruise before ending the robotaxi operations in 2024.

— CNBC’s Katie Tarasov contributed to this report.