Boom in smart vehicles drives Chinese carmakers and third-party producers like Black Sesame to ramp up auto chip output
- Hemmed in by US sanctions on advanced chips, China has formed an army of producers that are able to churn out mature node chips for use in cars
- As take-up of intelligent vehicles continues, chips related to autonomous driving and intelligent cockpits are developing fast
Chinese car chip makers have emerged as winners amid the growing popularity of intelligent vehicles in the world’s largest automobile market, according to industry executives.
After a shortage of auto chips only two years ago, Chinese carmakers have ramped up in-house production and third party suppliers such as Horizon Robotics and Black Sesame have also joined the fray, as Chinese smart vehicles go from strength to strength at home and overseas.
With China still unable to develop advanced chips such as those used in the latest smartphones and laptops due to US sanctions, the country has formed an army of producers that are able to churn out mature node chips for use in cars. Guangdong province alone said it had 8,900 registered car chip makers by the end of 2022.
China’s car chip output in 2023 is expected to reach US$17.2 billion, up 55 per cent from the value output size in 2018, according to a report by Askci Consulting Co. Horizon Robotics, founded in 2015, has reached a new deal with BYD as the Chinese car maker’s proprietary BEV (Bird’s Eye View) perception solution powered by Horizon Robotics’ Journey 5 computing processor readies for mass production this year.
Black Sesame, which makes system-on-a-chip (SoC) designs that help with auto-driving assistance, said it is working with Baidu on its car systems. Under a partnership agreement, Baidu said it will combine its intelligent driving solutions with Black Sesame’s chips to create an integrated system slated for release later this year.