Compute Platforms

Thor · AI5 · Journey · in-house

Tesla, Rivian, NIO and XPeng design their own autonomy chips. Everyone else buys Nvidia Thor.

Autonomy chips by vendor-stated TOPS: Rivian RAP1 dual-chip 1,600; NIO and Axera M97 more than 700; Horizon Robotics Journey 6P 560; Nvidia DRIVE Orin 254. TOPS figures are vendor claims at different precisions, and Nvidia Thor and Tesla AI5 are quoted differently. AUTONOMY CHIPS, VENDOR-STATED TOPS Rivian RAP1 (dual chip) 1,600 TOPS NIO / Axera M97 700+ TOPS Horizon Journey 6P 560 TOPS Nvidia DRIVE Orin 254 TOPS Vendor claims at differing precisions; not directly comparable.
Tesla AI5 volume
Mid-2027
Thor price
~$3,500
Horizon J6P
560 TOPS
Rivian RAP1
1,600 TOPS
Hub
Autonomy

Finding

Automakers are designing their own autonomy chips, and Nvidia's Thor is the default for everyone else

Tesla, Rivian, NIO and XPeng now design their own autonomy processors, and China's Horizon Robotics sells to most domestic brands. Tesla's AI5 taped out in April 2026 and will be built by both Samsung in Taylor, Texas and TSMC in Arizona, with volume expected in mid-2027. For automakers without their own silicon, Nvidia's DRIVE AGX Thor is the standard platform, used by Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, BYD, Toyota and others and priced at roughly $3,500 per chip.

The reasons are cost, control and supply. An in-house chip is designed around one company's neural networks, cuts the per-vehicle cost at volume, and reduces exposure to a single supplier or to export controls. China's makers are also responding to US limits on advanced chips: Horizon's next Journey 7 series targets performance above Nvidia's Thor-X, and NIO's M97 benchmarks against Horizon's J6P. The trade-off is that a chip program takes years and hundreds of millions of dollars, and HW3 owners learned that compute set the ceiling on what their cars could do. Samsung's Taylor fab is profiled on AustinIO.

Chips

Autonomy processors

Autonomy processors
ChipDesignerFabStatus
Tesla AI5TeslaSamsung (Taylor, TX), TSMC (Arizona)Taped out April 2026; volume mid-2027; also for Optimus and data centers
Nvidia DRIVE AGX ThorNvidiaTSMCIn production; Mercedes, Volvo, BYD, Toyota, Zeekr
Horizon Journey 6 / 7Horizon RoboticsTSMC and othersJ6P 560 TOPS; J7 targets 2027
Rivian RAP1RivianNot disclosedDual chip, 1,600 TOPS, Gen 3 platform
NIO M97NIO with AxeraNot disclosed700+ TOPS
XPeng TuringXPengNot disclosedIn XPeng cars; supplied to Volkswagen China models
Mobileye EyeQ6Mobileye (Intel)TSMCCamera-based ADAS for many Western OEMs
Qualcomm Snapdragon RideQualcommTSMC, SamsungADAS and cockpit; BMW and others

Sources

Sources and scope

Scope
Onboard autonomy compute for vehicles and robots
Sources
Tesla (AI5 tape-out, April 2026); Nvidia (CES 2026, earnings); CnEVPost (Horizon, NIO, March 2026); Rivian; AustinIO
Updated
October 2026