XPeng Motors Successfully Develops In-House AI Chip, Applicable to Robots and Flying Cars

On the evening of August 27, XPeng Motors announced the launch of the XPeng MONA M03, which is set to begin delivery in September 2024. XPeng Motors also unveiled its XPeng AI system for the first time, and launched the “XPeng Turing” chip, the all-new generation “AI Eagle Eye Vision Solution”, and others. Moreover, XPeng Motors has clarified its new goal to become a global AI automobile company in the next 10 years.

The XPeng Turing chip is a custom chip for end-to-end large models, integrating two self-developed neural network processing brains (NPU), two independent image signal processors (ISP), and adopting a DSA (Domain-Specific Architecture) oriented towards neural networks. It has a 40-core processor, supporting the local end to run large models with up to 30 billion parameters. In addition, this chip, the “XPeng Turing”, is the industry’s first chip that can be applied simultaneously to robots, AI cars, and flying cars, and it successfully taped out on August 23.

He Xiaopeng, Chairman and CEO of XPeng Motors, stated that for building an AI system, the chip is equivalent to the “physical brain”, and end-to-end is equivalent to the “way of thinking”. In May 2024, XPeng Motors achieved the mass production of end-to-end large models on vehicles, becoming the second automaker in the world to implement end-to-end large models after Tesla. According to the “End-to-End Quadrilogy”, XPeng Motors will achieve L3+ user experience based on L2 hardware and costs.

He Xiaopeng also emphasized that XPeng Motors is “upgrading from software-defined cars to AI-defined cars”, and in the next 10 years, XPeng Motors aims to become a global AI car company. At the same time, he predicted that there will be seven mainstream car brands left in China in the next 10 years, a million AI cars will be sold annually, and half of XPeng‘s sales will come from overseas.

Previously, domestic automakers such as NIO, Geely, Leap Motor, and BYD have all had experiences with self-developed chips. For instance, at the end of July this year, NIO launched the 5nm intelligent driving chip “Adam NX9031”. In April, Geely Auto’s subsidiary, Lynk & Co Technology, launched the 7nm automotive-grade smart cockpit chip “Longying No.1”.

Currently, automakers are all focusing on AI chips in the field of intelligent driving, on the one hand, to reduce difficulty, and on the other hand, to help automakers break free from dependence on overseas manufacturers and create a true “China Core”. At present, XPeng Motors is in the first echelon of domestic intelligent driving and has received investment from Volkswagen. Its intelligent driving technology can be said to be in full swing.

Automakers developing their own chips will undoubtedly better adapt to software and hardware, but it also brings tremendous cost pressure. From the financial report, XPeng Motors is the only new force in car manufacturing that can profit from intelligent driving technology, bringing new imagination to the market. The launch of the XPeng Turing chip, whether it can promote or even bring new business value while strengthening its technical capabilities, is worth paying attention to.

On the other hand, manufacturers focusing on intelligent driving chips are not scarce, such as recently listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Black Sesame Intelligence, and Horizon Robotics, which is sprinting for an IPO, are all its direct competitors. Therefore, everything remains to be verified by the market.

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