Nvidia Moves Into AI Car Business, Challenge to Tesla

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Dec 12, 8:15AM EST

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Nvidia Moves Into AI Car Business, Challenge to Tesla — © vzphotos / iStock Editorial via Getty Images

This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA | NVDA Price Prediction) is entering the self-driving car industry in China, the world’s largest car market. This puts it on a collision course with Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) and perhaps local electric vehicle (EV) companies that are also working on self-driving vehicles. It is another example of Nvidia’s effort to expand the footprint of products that can use its chips.

24/7 Wall St. Key Points:

Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA) is entering the self-driving car industry in the world’s largest car market.
That puts it on a collision course with Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA).
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Bloomberg reports that Nvidia has started adding to its engineering staff in China. It will likely work with some local EV companies, which are growing rapidly. Bloomberg says, “The company’s China-based researchers would be well positioned to work with local automakers who are looking for such technologies to enhance their offerings.”

In November, the top local EV companies outsold Tesla. Market leader BYD sold 506,804 EVs, making it number one in the market. Tesla sold 73,490, putting it in fourth place.

Chinese EV companies have started working with local companies, including the huge search operation Baidu. This gives these manufacturers local data about roads and other navigation.
As is the case with autonomous vehicles in the United States, the Chinese companies are in limited tests of a few hundred cars in a few cities.

As of October, Tesla had limited government approval to test self-driving cars, but not ones that are completely autonomous and need no driver interventions. It is too early to say if this limited approval will hamper the American company as it tries to get and hold the lead in China’s self-driving market.

One key to the self-driving future is the chips that drive the ability for cars to work without drivers. As the world’s largest AI chip company, Nvidia’s chips are essential for making these systems work.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.