Variety of Strategy
Samsung Electronics, Nvidia, Qualcomm, and TSMC are engaged in a fierce competition to dominate the autonomous driving semiconductor market. Recently, automotive companies such as Hyundai Motor and Tesla have also entered the fray, developing their own autonomous driving chips. The reason for this is the expectation that autonomous driving technology, which is expanding its applications from cars to ships, aircraft, and robots, will enlarge the relevant semiconductor market to over US$29 billion by 2030.
According to a report by global consulting firm McKinsey & Company on July 23, the global market for autonomous driving semiconductors is expected to grow from US$11 billion in 2019 to US$29 billion by 2030.
Mobileye, a startup that originated in Israel and was acquired by Intel in 2017, is often cited as a leading developer of autonomous driving chips. The firm is a pioneer in advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) and develops the camera-based autonomous driving chip EyeQ, supplying it to automotive semiconductor companies and first-tier auto parts manufacturers. It plans to launch a LiDAR-based autonomous driving chip from 2025. Furthermore, Ambarella from the United States is known as a fabless company that develops camera-based autonomous driving chips that rival Mobileye.
Domestic companies like Telechips and nextchip are also attempting to enter the autonomous driving chip market.
Global fabless companies like Qualcomm are also actively engaged in the autonomous driving chip business. At CES 2023, the world’s largest IT and electronics exhibition held in January, Qualcomm unveiled the Snapdragon Ride Flex chip. This chip integrates ADAS, infotainment systems, and autonomous driving features. To advance its autonomous driving technology, Qualcomm acquired the Swedish autonomous driving company Veoneer for US$4.5 billion in April last year. It has also been accumulating supply records. In January, Qualcomm announced it would supply autonomous driving chips to Hyundai Mobis and co-develop software.
Nvidia has expanded its business with an “Autonomous Driving Platform” consisting of autonomous driving chips and software. European automakers that are lagging in securing autonomous driving technology and data are known to be particularly keen on adopting Nvidia’s autonomous driving platform.
Nvidia is supplying its Nvidia Drive autonomous driving platform to Mercedes-Benz and Volvo, among others. Next year, it plans to supply to the U.S.-based EV company Lucid, and from 2025, to Jaguar Land Rover as well.
As the competition for developing autonomous driving chips intensifies, foundries, companies that manufacture chips on order, are seeing an increase in work. Samsung Electronics Foundry Business Division plans to provide a dedicated 4-nm process service for autonomous driving chips, following their existing 14-nm, 8-nm, and 5-nm processes. Tesla and Ambarella are considered potential customers for the 4-nm process. TSMC is seriously considering building a foundry in Dresden, Germany, to directly target the automakers there, the end customers of autonomous driving chips.