Momenta's Self-Developed Chip Powered On and Installed in Vehicles, Performance Comparable to NVIDIA Orin-X

A price storm is about to hit.

Beyond leading automakers, the self - developed chip achievements of industry technology companies are also being implemented. 36Kr Auto learned from multiple industry insiders that the assisted driving chip self - developed by Momenta was recently powered on and has started on - vehicle testing. It is understood that the performance of this chip is mainly benchmarked against mainstream assisted driving chips such as NVIDIA's Orin - X and Qualcomm's 8650. “Even the hardware interfaces are similar to those of the Qualcomm 8650 chip,” revealed an informed source. Therefore, Momenta's self - developed chip can be quickly mass - produced and installed in vehicles with little need for major modifications to the PCB. In 2023, Momenta embarked on the path of self - developed chips and recruited a large number of senior executives from Zeku, a chip design company under OPPO. Among them, Li Zonglin, the former COO of Zeku, is the key figure in Momenta's self - developed chip business. Now that Momenta's chip has been powered on, it means that it has passed the most basic performance tests. If subsequent tests go smoothly, Momenta's self - developed chip can be mass - produced. By then, Momenta will become an assisted driving supplier with both hardware and software capabilities, similar to Horizon. In addition to the breakthrough in self - developed chips, Momenta is also rapidly advancing its business progress in capital and overseas markets. 36Kr learned that currently, Momenta is researching and developing projects for IM Motors to enter the German, British, Thai, and Australian markets. Among them, the German project of IM Motors is about to enter the SOP (mass production and delivery) stage. The Robotaxi test vehicles jointly developed by Momenta and Uber in Munich, Germany, have also hit the road. < h3 > Self - developed Chips: A Defensive Strategy, Not an Offensive One < /h3 > Like many automakers self - developing assisted driving chips, Momenta's purpose of self - development is more like a defensive strategy rather than an offensive one. In terms of technological accumulation, Momenta, which has a software foundation, focuses more on the efficiency of chip use when designing the chip architecture. There is more room for cost reduction compared to purchasing products from external chip suppliers. Of course, for all technology companies self - developing chips, scale is always the prerequisite for cost reduction strategies. At this time, self - developing chips inevitably requires bearing a considerable amount of financial pressure. At the end of May this year, Cao Xudong said that at the end of August last year, Momenta had its first 100,000 vehicles with urban NOA. In February this year, it had the second 100,000 vehicles, and in May this year, it achieved the third 100,000 vehicles. 36Kr previously reported that the investment of NIO, Li Auto, and XPeng Motors in self - developed chips is roughly 300 - 400 million US dollars, corresponding to about 3 billion RMB. Zhu Jiangming, the CEO of Leapmotor, is even more radical. He believes that the R & D cost of chips can only be offset when the delivery volume reaches 2 - 3 million vehicles. However, the high cost of externally purchased chips also forces automakers and technology companies to take the risk. It is understood that the bulk purchase cost of NVIDIA's Orin - X is about 380 US dollars, equivalent to about 2,500 RMB. Currently, the cost of a set of urban assisted driving solutions is only in the tens of thousands of RMB, and the chip cost accounts for nearly 30%. After the launch of the self - developed chip, an industry insider told 36Kr that Momenta plans to reduce the cost of urban assisted driving solutions to the 5,000 RMB level or even lower. In addition to cost reduction, improving development efficiency may also be one of the reasons why Momenta focuses on chip R & D. Without self - developed chips, Momenta's software can only be forced to adapt to the general hardware of chip manufacturers. At this time, the software and hardware are not highly integrated. Restricted by the existing chip architecture, Momenta's software may not be able to exert its maximum advantages, and subsequent software solution iterations may also be restricted by the hardware. Moreover, different automakers and different vehicle models often use different assisted driving chips. Therefore, Momenta needs to do separate adaptations for different chips, which naturally drives up the R & D cost. For automakers, an assisted driving solution integrating software and hardware seems to be a more friendly choice. With the high adaptation of algorithms and hardware, the performance of the solution after being installed in vehicles goes without saying. When problems occur, the hardware and software come from the same supplier, which undoubtedly reduces the coordination and management costs of automakers. Perhaps for this reason, Momenta decided to start self - developing chips before the scale of mass - produced vehicles reached a certain level. Now that this chip has been powered on, Momenta's next important task is to obtain more vehicle model approvals and accelerate the delivery of assisted driving solutions. It can be seen that it took Momenta two years to reach the first 100,000 vehicles with urban NOA. It took more than five months from the first 100,000 vehicles to the second 100,000 vehicles, and the time was shortened to more than three months from the second 100,000 vehicles to the third 100,000 vehicles. In addition, Momenta has obtained approvals from leading automakers such as BMW, Mercedes - Benz, and Toyota this year. It seems only a matter of time before Momenta spreads the high cost of self - developed chips through scale. < h3 > Targeting Overseas Markets < /h3 > Momenta's ambition is not limited to the domestic market and L2. The overseas market and L4 are also markets it aims to compete in. During Momenta's overseas expansion, SAIC Group, its largest shareholder, provided support again. In the second half of this year, IM Motors under SAIC launched the L6 and LS6 in the European market. The new cars are sold through MG's channels, and SAIC once again entrusted Momenta with the overseas approvals for these two IM Motors models. Currently, the German project of IM Motors is about to enter the SOP stage. The British project of IM Motors will be delivered in September this year, and in the future, IM Motors will also be sold in Australia and Thailand. Industry insiders told 36Kr that currently, there are not many options for automakers when assisted driving technology companies expand overseas. Bosch is one, and Momenta is another. Horizon and Huawei are still relatively cautious. Although Bosch has compliance advantages, it started to focus on high - level solutions relatively late. “Therefore, in some overseas projects, Momenta can even get over 100 million RMB in development fees,” revealed a source. This is quite rare in the highly competitive assisted driving industry at present. Beyond L2, L4 is another important business segment for Momenta. When Momenta was founded, the story it told the industry was to obtain more real - world road test data and then achieve both L4 and L2 development through a data - driven flywheel. In the L4 field, Momenta has obtained approvals from many domestic and international large - scale enterprises. Momenta previously cooperated with SAIC's Xiangdao Chuxing on a Robotaxi project, but no latest progress has been disclosed since 2022. In May this year, Momenta officially announced a cooperation with Uber. The two parties plan to introduce the Robotaxi business in markets outside China and the United States and start operations next year. Currently, the Robotaxi test vehicles jointly developed by the two parties have hit the road. If this business can be successfully implemented next year, it will not only provide nourishment for Momenta's data flywheel but also boost its valuation in the capital market. Momenta's recent important move is its layout in the intelligent heavy - truck field. By leading a 500 million US - dollar financing round of Lingyi Automobile, Momenta achieved its layout in driverless trucks, which is another preparatory work for its listing. With the chip powered on and overseas projects about to be implemented, Momenta is rapidly expanding its business map. There have been repeated rumors in the industry about Momenta's listing on the public market, which will obviously be a watershed moment that determines the pattern of the assisted driving technology market. < img data - img - size - val = "1080,335" src = "https://img.36krcdn.com/hsossms/20250812/v2_dfca7805e2934311a8648912f08d672e@6196343_oswg43796oswg1080oswg335_img_jpg?x - oss - process = image/quality,q_100/format,jpg/interlace,1" > Author's WeChat: luckg17305264638

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Momenta's self-developed chip has been powered on and installed in vehicles, with performance comparable to NVIDIA Orin-X | Exclusive from 36Kr