NVIDIA has become essential for Japanese manufacturers. They are already working to avoid it at all costs
The Japanese car industry is beginning to depend on a factor that worries manufacturers: the price of Artificial Intelligence chips. Dependency on foreign companies such as NVIDIA is growing, this being the main protagonist with its Origin chip.
Japanese companies such as Toyota, Nissan, and Honda are seeking to reduce this dependence. “It’s a little worrying that the car design schedule is changing to match the chipmakers’ strategy.” These are the words of Keiji Yamamoto, Toyota executive and president of ASRA, the Japanese consortium that seeks to reverse the situation.
Rising costs and external dependence. NVIDIA is the absolute protagonist when it comes to providing Japanese companies with chips capable of processing AI functions.
Their GPUs are the most capable in this field, which has generated a significant dependence on the American manufacturer. Car manufacturers want to change the balance of power: they are looking to be able to choose custom chips, and not just those offered by NVIDIA.
A consortium to join forces. Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Renesas Electronics, Denso and Socionext formed a consortium under the name ASRA (Advanced SoC Research for Automotive), in order to reduce dependence on foreign companies.
By creating the consortium, the aim is to combine the resources of these companies to promote the development and research of new chips. Keiji Yamamoto, president of the consortium, is concerned that the design schedule for the new cars depends largely on the chip industry’s own pace.
It is estimated that the design of an SoC would cost each manufacturer around $62 million, one of the main reasons why they want to unify the design of future chips to save costs.
The consortium, Advanced SoC Research for Automotive (ASRA), aims to combine the resources of member companies to drive development, including research into chiplet technology, or combining different types of chips in a single package. It also wants to standardize some future chip designs across the industry to reduce costs for individual companies.
The new chips, already in testingTo achieve this goal, the consortium is relying on Turing, a start-up Japanese based in Tokyo. It is a company that is committed to generative AI, and intends to create a chip from scratch that competes directly with NVIDIA. It has already entered into initial conversations with semiconductor foundries for the test chip.
Image | toyota
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