- Nvidia’s (NVDA) automotive revenue hit $570 million in Q4, up 27% from the previous quarter and 103% year-over-year, with full-year earnings reaching $1.7 billion, a 55% increase, and a projected $5 billion this fiscal year.
- Partnerships with Toyota, Continental, Aurora, and Hyundai highlight Nvidia’s DRIVE AGX Orin chip and DriveOS powering next-generation autonomous vehicles and robotics, building on existing ties with Mercedes, Volvo, BYD, Foxconn, and Tesla.
- CEO Jensen Huang envisions a trillion-mile, 100-million-car industry, leveraging Nvidia’s graphics chips for “physical AI” in self-driving technology, positioning the company at the forefront of a massive robotics and computing frontier.
Nvidia’s (NVDA) automotive business is quietly emerging as a powerhouse, with its fourth-quarter revenue reaching $570 million – a 27% jump from the prior quarter and a striking 103% increase year-over-year – while full-year earnings climbed 55% to $1.7 billion. Far from a footnote to the company’s headline-grabbing Blackwell chip success, this segment is projected by CFO Colette Kress to hit $5 billion this fiscal year, fueled by a surge in partnerships and a strategic focus on the intersection of supercomputing and robotics, what CEO Jensen Huang terms “physical AI.” At CES last month, Huang underscored the critical role of Nvidia’s graphics chips in training autonomous vehicles, processing vast video data to simulate real-world driving, a capability now powering collaborations with industry giants like Toyota, which will integrate Nvidia’s DRIVE AGX Orin chip and DriveOS into its next-generation vehicles.
The momentum extends beyond Toyota, with Nvidia’s DRIVE hardware and software tapped by Continental and Aurora Innovation Inc. (AUR) for level 4 autonomous trucks set to hit roads by 2027, alongside Hyundai Motor Group’s adoption for both autonomous vehicles and smart factory advancements. This builds on existing ties with Mercedes, Volvo, BYD, Foxconn, and even Tesla (TSLA), whose supercomputers leverage Nvidia chips, positioning the company at the heart of a burgeoning robotics industry Huang predicts could dwarf current scales—envisioning a future with 100 million new cars annually driving a trillion miles. The $5 billion forecast for this fiscal year feels conservative when viewed against this backdrop, as Nvidia capitalizes on the growing nexus of AI and mobility, a trend Morgan Stanley’s (MS) Adam Jonas ties to investor enthusiasm for embodied AI, spurred by broader advancements in generative AI and supercomputing.
Nvidia’s automotive strides reflect a calculated pivot to harness its graphics prowess for more than gaming, targeting a market where self-driving technology demands immense computational muscle. Huang’s vision of a trillion-mile, hundred-million-car ecosystem isn’t abstract—it’s grounded in the tangible traction of $1.7 billion in 2024 revenue and a doubling of that figure from the prior year’s fourth quarter alone. As companies like Aurora and Continental plan autonomous freight hauls, and Hyundai doubles down on robotics, Nvidia’s chips and DriveOS are becoming the backbone of a transformative shift, not just in automotive but in how AI interacts with the physical world, setting the stage for what could indeed become one of the largest computing industries globally.
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