Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, arrived in the UK this week with a promise to contribute $2 billion ($2.6 billion) to boost the nation’s AI startup scene. The business told TechCrunch that Wayve, a self-driving tech startup based in the United Kingdom, would be among those to benefit from Nvidia’s AI investment pledge.
Wayve announced that it and Nvidia have inked a letter of intent to assess a $500 million strategic investment in the upcoming funding round of the UK business. In May 2024, Wayve closed its $1.05 billion Series C investment, in which Nvidia took part.
The $500 million tentative commitment is a component of Nvidia’s AI startup investment plan, according to a Wayve representative.
At an event on Thursday, Nvidia announced that the £2 billion contribution would come from venture capitalists Phoenix Court, Accel, Air Street Capital, Balderton, and Hoxton Ventures. Regarding the announcement of the letter of intent, an Nvidia representative chose not to comment.
Alex Kendall, the CEO and co-founder of Wayve, declined to give TechCrunch an estimated timeframe for the Series D round’s closure. Kendall acknowledged that the business was “moving rapidly in that direction.”
Since its 2017 introduction, Wayve has drawn interest from investors due to its automated driving system, which employs self-learning rather than rules-based self-driving software. Wayve’s end-to-end neural network teaches the car to drive using data alone, without the need for high-definition maps. Both “eyes off” fully autonomous driving systems and “eyes on” assisted driving use that data-driven learning methodology.
The company plans to sell its “Embodied AI” to automakers and other tech companies.
Because it does not rely on particular sensors or maps, Wayve’s self-learning approach—which is comparable to Tesla’s strategy—is thought to be especially interesting to automakers. This implies that Wayve’s solution is compatible with current sensors, such as radar and cameras. The data that the autonomous driving software gathers from those sensors directly influences the system’s driving choices.
Additionally, since 2018, Wayve has maintained a close development partnership with Nvidia, even though its software can work on whatever processor that its OEM partners now have in their cars.
Nvidia GPUs are used by Wayve’s generation 2 self-driving platform, which is built inside its Ford Mach E test vehicles. The startup introduced version 3, a platform that makes use of the Nvidia Drive AGX Thor in-car compute autonomous vehicle development kit, this week. Wayve will be able to provide Level 4 autonomous features and eyes-off advanced driving assistance systems on city streets and highways thanks to the gen 3.
Huang and Nvidia appear eager to contribute to Wayve’s future.
“You guys, the next trillion-dollar firm,” Huang remarked in a video of his maiden journey on London’s public streets in a Wayve-equipped car. In the soon-to-be-released film, which TechCrunch saw, Huang is seen giving Kendall Nvidia’s Thor development kit.
In an interview on Friday, Kendall stated, “We picked him up from his hotel and went for a drive around Central London via some extremely busy areas, including Hyde Park corner – that is this enormous roundabout here.” “It was awesome to show him what we have been developing on because of Nvidia’s platform over the years, and I truly enjoyed that experience.”
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