Waymo Develops Custom AI Chip for Autonomous Vehicles

Waymo, the autonomous vehicle unit of tech giant Google (GOOGL), has developed its own custom AI chip to reduce its reliance on suppliers like Nvidia (NVDA) and AMD. The new chip is capable of processing over 1,000 trillion operations per second, or 1000 TOPS, and is designed specifically for Waymo's needs.

The chip is manufactured using Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing's (TSM) 5-nanometer process and is already in production for Waymo's new robotaxis. This move gives Waymo more control over the computers inside its vehicles, which is crucial for autonomous driving as it requires processing vast amounts of sensor information quickly.

The custom chip will improve how quickly Waymo's vehicles react to situations on complicated city streets and may also reduce costs in the future by removing unnecessary hardware. Waymo has historically used Nvidia and AMD chips inside its computers, but this new design is tailored specifically for its needs.