Rivian Unveils In-House AI Chip To Replace Nvidia And Challenge Tesla In The Autonomy Race

The company unveiled its own proprietary silicon chip at the company’s AI and autonomy event being held in Palo Alto, California.

EV startup Rivian Automotive (RIVN) said that the company is designing its own AI chips for autonomous driving in a bid to replace Nvidia chips, as it seeks to play catch up with big shots including Tesla.

The company unveiled its own proprietary silicon chip at the company’s AI and autonomy event in Palo Alto, California. The CEO expressed optimism about the chip allowing the company to achieve level 4 vehicle autonomy. While Rivian currently offers advanced driver assistance features on its R1 vehicles, they require active driver supervision and do not make the vehicles autonomous. 

New Compute Platform For Higher Autonomy

The new in-house chip is called RAP1 or Rivian Autonomy Processor1 and is aimed at processing data from the new addition of LIDAR in addition to other sensors including cameras. It will be produced by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC).

The company said that its next generation vehicle computers called Autonomy Compute Module 3 will have two RAP1 chips and will be capable of processing 5 billion pixels per second. “This computer achieves four times the peak performance of our gen two computer, while improving power efficiency by a factor of two and a half,” Rivian executive Vidya Rajagopalan said. The company’s previous generation computer used Nvidia Orin chips.  

“Our updated hardware platform, which includes our in-house 1600 sparse TOPS inference chip, will enable us to achieve dramatic progress in self-driving to ultimately deliver on our goal of delivering L4. This represents an inflection point for the ownership experience – ultimately being able to give customers their time back when in the car,” Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe said. 

R2 SUV To Boost Tesla Rivalry

EV giant Tesla also develops its own chips to enable its driver assistance software called full self driving. While Tesla is optimistic of the software enabling full vehicle autonomy in time with just cameras, they currently actively require driver supervision. Tesla’s chips are produced by Samsung and TSMC.

Rivian is now looking forward to starting production of its R2 SUV in the first half of 2026. The vehicle is expected to expand the company’s total addressable market with its lower starting price, unlike the company’s pricier R1 offerings. 

Get updates to this developing story directly on Stocktwits.<