On February 26th, reports have emerged that Luo Qi, formerly one of the lead technical directors for Baidu's L2+ autonomous driving division, has recently joined Nvidia's automotive business unit as an Engineering Director, where he will oversee forecasting, planning, and control.
Prior to his departure, he had reached the rank of T9 (equivalent to a lead architect) at Baidu.
The reports indicate that Nvidia began exploring the development of autonomous driving solutions in 2015, forming intentions to collaborate with several major international automakers, including Mercedes-Benz and Jaguar Land Rover. However, they have yet to deliver a complete solution, leading Mercedes-Benz at one point to consider bringing in other suppliers.
Despite being listed by NVIDIA as one of its three major business segments (data center, gaming, automotive), the revenue contribution from its automotive division is significantly lower compared to the other two. The financial report for Q4 2023 revealed that NVIDIA's automotive business accounted for only 1.2% of the total revenue.
However, NVIDIA's founder, Jensen Huang, remains optimistic about the automotive business. He has expressed the belief that NVIDIA's total revenue will reach $1 trillion in the future, with the automotive sector contributing 30% to this ambitious target.
NVIDIA's AI chips serve as a notable example of substantial returns resulting from forward-thinking long-term investments. The development of the parallel computing software platform CUDA, initiated as early as 2004, enabled NVIDIA to establish a market monopoly in the field of AI chips.
