Former Xpeng Vice President Joins Nvidia in Automotive Role

The former vice president of autonomous driving at Chinese electric vehicle maker Xpeng, Wu Xinhou, is joining U.S. artificial intelligence giant Nvidia, he said on Thursday.

Credits: Reuters

Wu did not disclose what role he was taking up at Nvidia but Chinese media outlet Jiemian News said he would become its head of automotive products. It did not give a source for the news. Wu did not immediately respond to a request for further details from Reuters. Nvidia also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Wu, who resigned from Xpeng this month, said on his Weibo account that he had joined Nvidia, posting a photo of himself alongside Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Xpeng's chairman He Xiaopeng. Wu had led Xpeng's autonomous driving development efforts from 2018 with more than 1,000 engineers in China and the United States.

Chinese automakers such as Xpeng have been big buyers of Nvidia's chips as they equip their cars with intelligent systems. On Wednesday, Nvidia far exceeded expectations with its quarterly revenue forecast and said it was seeing demand from China surge.

Xpeng, which is among China's top 20 best-selling EV makers, has been upgrading its advanced driver assistance software and has said it plans to make all of its functions available to drivers across China by 2024, as it seeks to gain an edge over U.S. rival Tesla.

This month, Xpeng's chairman He said in a social media post disclosing Wu's departure from the company that he was looking forward to continuing to deepen cooperation with Wu in areas including chips.

---

• Former Xpeng VP Wu Xinhou has joined Nvidia in an automotive role

• Wu led Xpeng's autonomous driving efforts with over 1,000 engineers

• Chinese automakers like Xpeng buy Nvidia chips for intelligent systems

Source: REUTERS