Wayve has announced a US$60m investment from technology companies Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Arm and Qualcomm Ventures, extending its Series D round. The investment builds on its US$1.2bn Series D, backed by leading financial investors, global technology companies and auto makers, as it deploys the Wayve AI Driver in production vehicles.
Wayve is developing end-to-end embodied AI software that enables point-to-point navigation across different environments and vehicles, spanning L2+ hands-off to L3/L4 eyes-off driving, without relying on high-definition maps. Unlike autonomous driving systems built for a specific car or hardware setup, the Wayve AI Driver is designed to run across a wide range of vehicle platforms and configurations.
Alex Kendall, co-founder and CEO of Wayve, said, “For embodied AI to scale, auto makers need design choice and supply chain flexibility. We’re building an AI Driver that works across the full automotive compute ecosystem, from architectures already used in millions of vehicles today to the platforms powering the next generation of automated vehicles. Expanding our relationships with leading silicon companies helps bring that into production at a global scale, and we’re delighted to have these partners actively working with us on integration and deployment.”
Accelerating deployment of the Wayve AI Driver
As the industry moves toward deploying AI-driven vehicles at scale, the ability to run across different automotive compute platforms is becoming critical. Wayve’s investors now include a broad group of leading technology companies. Collectively, they span the automotive compute stack, from platforms widely used in vehicles today to those powering the next generation of autonomous vehicles. This alignment makes it easier for auto makers and fleet operators to deploy the Wayve AI Driver, reducing integration complexity and accelerating time to market.
Salil Raje, senior vice president and general manager, adaptive and embedded computing group at AMD, said, “AI is moving into real-world systems, and that changes compute demands. It stops being about models and becomes about physical AI systems that have to sense, decide and act reliably and in real time. We see Wayve’s approach as an important step in bringing technologies like AI Driver into production at scale.”
The investment will support integration across automotive compute platforms and continued deployment of the Wayve AI Driver in production systems for advanced driver assistance systems and automated driving. It also reflects growing engagement from investors to accelerate engineering integration and joint go-to-market efforts with Wayve. This includes Wayve’s longstanding work with Nvidia across AI training and next-generation vehicles such as the Nissan robotaxi prototype built on Nvidia Drive Hyperion and the Wayve AI Driver. It will also support Wayve’s previously announced collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies to deliver a pre-integrated AI Driver solution on the Snapdragon Ride Platform with Active Safety software, simplifying implementation for auto makers.
Spencer Collins, executive vice president and head of corporate development, Arm, commented, “AI is ushering in a new era of increasingly intelligent and autonomous vehicles that require high-performance, power-efficient compute platforms to scale across a diverse and evolving ecosystem. The Arm compute platform is foundational to the AI-defined vehicle transformation, and our investment in Wayve further demonstrates our commitment to enabling advanced AI in vehicles and accelerating broad deployment.”
Quinn Li, senior vice president, Qualcomm Technologies and global head of Qualcomm Ventures, said, “AI is becoming central to the driving experience and bringing it into vehicles requires close alignment between software and automotive platforms. Our collaboration with Wayve reflects a shared commitment to helping auto makers bring AI Driver into production at scale, supporting diverse vehicle programs and long-term roadmaps on platforms like Snapdragon Ride.”
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