British autonomous driving technology startup Wayve announced on Wednesday that it has secured investments from Qualcomm, AMD, and ARM Holdings, adding several top technology firms to its investor base as it competes with rivals such as Waymo, owned by Alphabet.
The company stated that the three semiconductor firms invested $60 million in Wayve, representing an extension of the $1.2 billion funding round the autonomous vehicle company announced in February of this year.
Although the amount is relatively modest, the investment holds significant strategic importance.
Wayve’s technology enables vehicles to drive autonomously without relying on high-definition maps or extensive training in specific geographic areas, a contrast to the approach taken by competitors like Waymo.
The UK-based company develops technology that can be adapted to vehicles from any automaker. However, different automakers use various chips to power their autonomous driving systems, such as those designed by NVIDIA or Qualcomm. Both ARM and AMD are active in the automotive chip sector.
In the $1.2 billion funding round announced in February, Wayve already named NVIDIA as an investor. With major semiconductor players now on board, Wayve is positioned to collaborate more closely with these companies to advance commercialization and promote its technology to more automakers.
Alex Kendall, CEO of Wayve, said in an interview with CNBC, “What excites us is that this allows our customers to choose their preferred chip platform and enables us to integrate with existing industry solutions.”
“We can align with the industry’s current setup, which will only accelerate the adoption and scale of our technology.”
Wayve is currently testing autonomous vehicles in the UK, Germany, Japan, and the United States, and has established a commercial partnership with Nissan to integrate its artificial intelligence technology into the driver-assistance systems of Nissan production vehicles. In March, the two companies, along with Uber, announced plans to jointly develop autonomous taxis.
Kendall declined to comment on other ongoing automaker partnerships but stated that “it’s only a matter of time before every vehicle has these kinds of capabilities,” referring to the autonomous driving systems Wayve is developing.
Wayve faces increasing competition in its operating markets. Waymo has begun testing vehicles outside the U.S., including in Japan and the UK.
On Tuesday, Waymo announced that its test vehicles in London are now accompanied by professional safety drivers, marking another key step ahead of its planned passenger service launch later this year.
Meanwhile, Chinese companies such as Baidu, WeRide, and Pony.ai are also expanding their autonomous driving technology businesses overseas.
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