Nvidia is in talks to invest $500 million in the London-based self-driving car startup Wayve Technologies.
Nvidia’s interest comes as the sci-fi dream of driverless cars inches closer to reality. Alphabet’s Waymo robotaxis already roam several U.S. cities, Tesla is testing its own service in Austin, and Amazon’s Zoox taxis—which have no steering wheels or pedals—just started offering rides in Las Vegas this month.
The tech for driverless cars is accelerating so quickly that Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi warned at the All-In Summit this month that driverless taxis could outnumber human-driven ones within 10 to 15 years.
Now, Nvidia is gearing up to take a bigger stake in the self-driving car race.
The news of the talks also comes just days after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, along with other major tech executives, joined President Donald Trump on his visit to the U.K. and pledged to invest over $2 billion in the nation’s AI startup scene.
Huang said in a statement that the U.K. is experiencing a “Goldilocks moment.”
“There has never been a better time to invest in the U.K. — AI is unlocking new science and sparking entirely new industries,” Huang said. “With new capital and advanced infrastructure, we are doubling down to empower the U.K. to lead the next wave of AI innovation.”
Who is Wayve?
So why is Nvidia betting on Wayve?
Founded in 2017, the London startup makes autonomous-driving software called “Embodied AI,” which learns from real-world traffic using cameras and machine learning. This theoretically gets rid of the need for detailed maps that its competitors rely on.
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