The highly anticipated Chinese AAA title, "Black Myth: Wukong," has finally been released. However, players quickly discovered that their hardware setup was the first challenge on their journey to the West.
The exciting news is that future smart cockpits might be up to the task. Intel, which recently announced its entry into the automotive market, has introduced a powerful beast to the cockpit chip sector.
Intel's in-vehicle standalone graphics card, the A760-A, is designed for smart cockpit systems, boasting high computing power that can support 4K resolution, AAA game-level rendering, and the ability to deploy large models with over 14 billion parameters locally. It is set to enter mass production and be installed in vehicles as early as 2025.
How serious is Intel about its automotive business? At CES 2024, this is the first question asked to CEO Pat Gelsinger by VP and GM of Intel Automotive, Jack Weast, at a presentation: How can we convince the industry that Intel is committed to continuously investing in its automotive business?
This marked the first time in years that Intel has highlighted its automotive business as a key focus to the public. Intel has been involved in the automotive market for years, from early fuel vehicle cockpit systems to acquiring Mobileye to enter the smart driving sector, but it never formed a consistent and clear strategy.
CEO Gelsinger stated that Intel has entered and exited the automotive market multiple times. The automotive market is massive, and Intel has the technical capability, the chips, the fabs, and ample reason to continue investing in this market; not just today, but for decades to come.
Although Intel is facing financial difficulties and cost-cutting, it has chosen to double down on the Chinese market, where smart EVs are rapidly growing. The headquarters of Intel Automotive is located in Beijing, and GM Jack Weast has fully committed to this effort by moving his entire family to Beijing.
Weast has been with Intel for 25 years and has served as VP of Mobileye and chief architect of Intel's autonomous driving division. In early 2024, Intel launched its first generation of software-defined in-vehicle SoCs, with its first customer being the Chinese EV brand Zeekr.
Missing out on the entire mobile internet era has been a painful lesson for Intel. The company is well aware that it cannot afford to miss out on the automotive intelligence era this time, with the primary focus on the Chinese market.
Starting in early 2024, after Intel made a high-profile announcement at CES about entering the automotive market and launching its automotive cockpit SoC, the company went a step further in the second half of the year by releasing its second product for the automotive market, the ARC A760-A in-vehicle graphics card, demonstrating its deepening involvement in the automotive industry.
Although Intel's efforts started in China, the advanced process wafer fab in Magdeburg, Germany, was part of Gelsinger's initial grand plan for Intel's automotive business. The automotive sector is critical to Intel's overall IDM 2.0 strategy.
In 2021, Gelsinger introduced the IDM 2.0 strategy, announcing that Intel's total future investment would increase to US$100 billion. Weast emphasized that "Intel has 100 billion reasons to be deeply involved in the automotive industry because we've already invested US$100 billion in chip capacity."
Now, it remains to be seen how the fiercely competitive Chinese automotive market will test Intel's capabilities.
