Chips & Supply · United States

Volvo Cars and Nvidia expand partnership on automated driving

Reading from TechCrunch · Credited to DigiTimes $ · digitimes.com · 1h ago

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Volvo is leveling up its automated driving system through an expansion of its nearly decade-long partnership with Nvidia. The companies announced on Thursday that Volvo will use three pieces of Nvidia hardware and software in its future vehicles to provide an automated driving system that can navigate urban streets and highways.

Under the expanded partnership, Volvo will combine its vehicle safety systems and engineering with Nvidia’s Hyperion sensor and compute architecture, Alpamayo driving software stack, and Halos safety evaluation layer.

The Alpamayo stack is redundant and diverse, according to Ali Kani, who heads up Nvidia’s automotive division. It combines Alpamayo, a family of AI models, datasets, and simulation and development tools used to build autonomous-driving software, with classical software that uses machine learning and camera and radar perception, he said.

“The point is we run these two stacks at the same time, and we have multimodal sensors in our philosophy because it’s a safer product that way,” Kani said, adding that the open source Alpamayo software has now been downloaded by more than 650,000 developers.

Volvo didn’t reveal the value of the partnership or which vehicle model would be the first to use this new Nvidia tech stack. But Alwin Bakkenes, Volvo’s head of software development, hinted at the scale of the deal and how it represents the automaker’s evolution toward developing a full-tech stack designed for its electric vehicles as well as its plug-in hybrids and gas-powered vehicles.

“Automakers used to be very much like car-line-based development and working with various suppliers, etc. and we have completely changed and migrated into being a full-tech stack company,” Bakkenes said, adding that Volvo will start this partnership with a brand new vehicle that “will come in the not-too-near future.”

He said the first vehicle with this new Nvidia tech stack will debut within the decade, and “then of course the technology can go beyond that.”

While Volvo’s relationship with Nvidia isn’t new, the expanded partnership represents the automaker’s effort to bring the latest automated driving software to all of its vehicles — not just its EVs.

All of Volvo’s battery-electric vehicles use Nvidia’s Orin computer chip, which processes information from cameras, radar, and other sensors to help a vehicle understand its surroundings and make driving decisions.

“What we’re going to do in the future is actually standardize more on Hyperion — also from a sensor set perspective — to really open up the stack for the wider partnership with Nvidia,” Bakkenes said.

Chips & SupplyUnited States

Analysis: Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan's power of humility — how one phone call helped reshape the chip giant's comeback

Credited to DigiTimes$ · digitimes.com2h ago

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As the semiconductor industry enters the artificial intelligence (AI) era, Intel, once the dominant force in the PC market, has increasingly been viewed as a company that fell behind in the AI race.

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Chips & Supply · United States

TSMC in talks with Musk over potential role in Texas Terafab, discussions at early stage

Credited to The Hindu BusinessLine · thehindubusinessline.com · 15h ago

Photograph · The Hindu BusinessLine

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Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) is in talks over a potential role in Elon Musk’s planned Terafab foundry in Texas, with the discussions still at an early stage, according to a news report by Taiwan Plus. TSMC Chairman and CEO CC Wei said the timeline for building and scaling a new wafer fabrication plant could be a key consideration as the companies discuss the project.

Wei said a new wafer fabrication plant would take about two to three years to build, while expanding its production capacity could require another one to two years, calling it a “fundamental” of the foundry industry, Taiwan Plus reported.

The report said one option under discussion would have TSMC own and operate the Texas plant, while SpaceX would invest in the project and purchase chips produced at the facility. Another option would give SpaceX a majority stake in the plant.

Musk has confirmed the discussions with TSMC on X, saying the talks are still at an early stage, Taiwan Plus reported. The potential Texas project comes as TSMC continues to expand its manufacturing presence in the United States. Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs had approved applications for TSMC to invest $44 billion in the United States since December 2020, according to an earlier Focus Taiwan report.

TSMC announced in March 2025 that it planned an additional $100 billion investment in Arizona, on top of an earlier $65 billion plan, taking its overall planned investment in the state to $165 billion. The expanded Arizona plan included increasing the number of planned advanced wafer fabrication facilities from three to six, along with two advanced integrated circuit assembly units and a dedicated research facility, according to Focus Taiwan.

For the proposed Texas Terafab, the ownership structure and TSMC’s eventual role remain under discussion. With the talks still at an early stage, the proposed operating and investment arrangements have yet to be finalised.