NVIDIA’s Thor Chip Production Delayed, XPeng Plans to Shelve Deployment
According to 36Kr‘s report, the continuous delay of NVIDIA’s flagship car AI chip Thor is increasing the risk of losing core customers.
Thor was originally planned for mass production in mid-2024 but has been significantly delayed. It is now expected to be available in mid-next year, and it will still be an entry-level version. The media cited multiple sources as saying that its delay is affecting the new car product decisions of some domestic automakers.
XPeng Motors is considering shelving the use of the Thor chip for its new car next year. Informed sources indicate that XPeng is accelerating the integration of its self-developed intelligent driving chip ‘Turing,’ which has already been taped out. XPeng is testing and verifying the stability and performance of the chip, with ‘full-stack NGP already running on the XP5 chip (internal code name for XPeng‘s chip).’
NIO has not reserved NVIDIA’s next-generation Thor chip for next year. Similar to XPeng, NIO announced in July this year that its self-developed intelligent driving chip ‘NX9031’ has officially taped out. NIO‘s new car next year will be equipped with its self-developed ‘NX9031’ chip, NVIDIA Orin, and Horizon Robotics, but not Thor.
Regarding the above information, both XPeng Motors and NIO have declined to comment.
Previously, BYD, Zeekr, and Ideal and other car companies have all announced that they will adopt the Thor chip.
As one of the first batch of car companies to mass-produce vehicles with the Thor chip, Ideal is currently developing its own smart driving chip with the project codenamed ‘Schumacher.’ Insiders say that Ideal is conducting preliminary research on the next-generation solution VLA (Visual Language Action Model) for ‘end-to-end’ intelligent driving. When combined with its smart driving chip set to be mass-produced in 2026, the overall effect will be better. The reliance on Thor may gradually decrease.
