2025 is being a Year of challenges for Chinese companies. The country is accelerating in its effort by reduce American dependenceand the semiconductor industry is the main key to achieve it. Who dominates knowledge in chips will dominate the world.
Xiaomi knows it and the design of his own chip, the Xring 01It is proof of this. It is a very different approach to that of Huawei, vetoed of American technology, since He has achieved this milestone with the help of TSMC.
The company claimed to be working on its own chips for electric cars, in an exercise to reduce dependence on companies such as Qualcomm or Nvidia. They are not alone in this battle: Xpeng A SUV has just launched in China with a processor signed by the company.
The XPEng G7. Before understanding the chip, it is convenient to understand who its bearer is. The company launched the G7 yesterday in Chinaan electric SUV that points directly to Tesla Model Y. Double battery, autonomy of 702 kilometers according to the Chinese homologation cycle and 292 hp of power and … three Turing chips designed by Xpeng.
One of the XPEng pillars is in the assisted driving, so far vitaminated by Nvidia chips. The manufacturer remains small compared to Gigantes such as Byd or Geely, but their message is clear: they want to be leaders in autonomous driving technologies.
THE THREE TURING CHIPS. In honor of the computer legend, Alan Turing, the three chips that this electric car incorporates their name. According to Xpeng, each of its chips triples the processing capacity of a conventional chip: its three Turing chips are equivalent to Nine Nvidia Drive On chipsone of the most used platforms by manufacturers that are committed to the autonomous vehicle. Platform, by the way, with more than three years of life.
Xpeng took five years to develop Turing.
“There are so many different chips in a car that, when we decided to make internal chips, we decided to go for the most challenging, and that is the chip of AI,” we also think if we should take over during the trip, since the cost is too high. “
The joint capacity of these chips, according to Xpeng, is more than 2,000 tops (more than 700 tops per chip), a capacity that triples the 250 tops of the Nvidia Drive Orin chips launched in 2022. This capacity makes it a vehicle capable of running autonomous level 3 driving functions of level 3, although they are not active.
Why is it important. The XPEng movement settles a clear trend of Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers: commitment to national chips to avoid dependence with NVIDIA and other US manufacturers. They have not transcended details about the external function that manufactures the chips for Xpeng, but it is known Both Nvidia and Xpeng have had an engineers in recent years.
Xpeng has been working on an own software platformwhich works together on an integrated platform with the most advanced hardware in Some of its vehicles: Lidar sensorshigh resolution cameras, millimeter wave radars.
Interior of the XPEng G7.
They are not alone. Xiaomi has claimed to be working on his own chips, the Chinese giant Nio announced last year his first internal intelligent driving chip, the SHENJI NX9031built with an architecture of 5 nanometers, and Huawei develops its own chips to nurture brands such as Aito, Luxeed and Maextro.
The key is that both Xiaomi and Nio do not seem to close alliances with US partners. The Shenji Nx9031 and its 5NM process chiva that It has not been manufactured by SMIC or within China. This mixed exercise allows, while the United States continues to provide access to its technology, not to depend for the design and implementation of the chip, although for its manufacture.
Spain rubs its hands. Xpeng recently brought its XPEng G6, G9 and P7 to Spain, so nothing prevents G7 from landing in our territory. The company is looking for factories in Europe To avoid tariff pressure, and intends to expand by markets beyond your native country.
Image | Xpeng
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