NVIDIA is reportedly serious about building cars driven by artificial intelligence in China. The chip maker had about 3,000 members in its workforce in China at the beginning of 2024. Over the past 12 months it has added about a 1,000 more to its team to improve research on self-driving cars, with 200 being added to its research team alone.
The hiring spree is in line with the company’s intention to boost its self-driving car operations in China. The company has been trying to expand its after-sales and software-development teams so that its operations receive better support in the region.
NVIDIA is clearly readying to make the most of the opportunities available in the rapidly-growing Chinese electric vehicle or EV industry. Automakers of the region are keen to embrace advanced automation and AI technologies into their products, which only increases the demand for and reliance on NVIDIA’s expertise in automation.
Interestingly, it is reported that China has recently launched an investigation into Nvidia’s anti-trust violations (anti-monopoly law) pertaining to the acquisition of Mellanox Technologies, the Israeli-American networking hardware firm.
In 2022, when the US had put a cap to selling chips to China, Nvidia had continued to sell in China having altered its products. Rumours are rife that Nvidia is creating an exclusive artificial intelligence (AI) chip for the China market.
