Horizon Robotics, Inc. () is a Chinese technology company headquartered in

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

. The company develops

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

(AI) chips used in

self-driving car A self-driving car, also known as an autonomous car (AC), driverless car, robotic car or robo-car, is a car that is capable of operating with reduced or no human input. They are sometimes called robotaxis, though this term refers specifica ...

s and

advanced driver assistance systems Advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) are technologies that assist drivers with the safe operation of a vehicle. Through a human-machine interface, ADAS increases car and road safety. ADAS uses automated technology, such as sensors and came ...

(ADAS).

Background

Horizon Robotics was founded in 2015 by several former

Baidu Baidu, Inc. ( ; ) is a Chinese multinational technology company specializing in Internet services and artificial intelligence. It holds a dominant position in China's search engine market (via Baidu Search), and provides a wide variety of o ...

employees, including Yu Kai who previously led Baidu's self-driving car division. The company was funded by notable investors that included

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer compo ...

Hillhouse Investment Hillhouse Investment Management Ltd. is a global private equity firm with an East Asian heritage. Hillhouse was founded by Lei Zhang in 2005 with initial seed capital from the Yale University endowment and invests across East Asia, Southeast A ...

HongShan HongShan Capital Group (HSG; ) is a Chinese venture capital firm founded in 2005. It was previously the China investment arm of Sequoia Capital (Sequoia) and was known as Sequoia Capital China and Sequoia China before it was rebranded and spun- ...

Yuri Milner Yuri Borisovich (Bentsionovich) Milner (, ; born 11 November 1961) is a Soviet-born Israeli entrepreneur, investor, physicist and scientist. He is a co-founder and former chairperson of internet company Mail.Ru Group (later VK), and a founder ...

, Sinovation Ventures and

Yunfeng Capital Yunfeng Capital (YF Capital; ) is a Shanghai-based private equity firm founded in 2010. It was founded by Jack Ma ( founder and former executive chairman of Alibaba) and David Yu (founder of Target Media). Background Yunfeng Capital was foun ...

. Other backers include

BYD BYD or Byd may refer to: Companies * BYD Company, an automobile and rechargeable battery producer in China ** BYD Auto, a subsidiary automobile manufacturer in China * Boyd Gaming, a gaming and hospitality company (NYSE ticker symbol: BYD) Other ...

Chery Chery Automobile Co. Ltd., Doing business as, trading as Chery (), is a Chinese automobile manufacturer owned by Chery Holding Group Co., Ltd. Founded in 1997, it is currently the fourth largest automobile manufacturer group in China, with 2,6 ...

and

CATL Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL) is a Chinese battery manufacturer and technology company founded in 2011 that specializes in the manufacturing of lithium-ion battery, lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and energy st ...

. Due to the United States New Export Controls on Advanced Computing and Semiconductors to China, Horizon Robotics attracted more interest from investors who felt it could be an alternative to

Nvidia Nvidia Corporation ( ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and incorporated in Delaware. Founded in 1993 by Jensen Huang (president and CEO), Chris Malachowsky, and Curti ...

in China which had to abide with selling restrictions. In December 2017, Horizon Robotics launched Journey 1.0, the first generation of its AI chips used in vehicles. It would help cars recognize external objects in a low power consumption manner. Originally Horizon Robotics planned to hold an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...

(IPO) in the United States that could raise as much as $1 billion. However, in October 2021, it was reported that it changed its IPO country to

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

instead. This came at a time where the

Chinese government The government of the People's Republic of China is based on a system of people's congress within the parameters of a Unitary state, unitary communist state, in which the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) enacts its policies through people's ...

was increasing scrutiny of overseas listings. In October 2022, Volkswagen Group invested $2.3 billion to establish a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

(JV) with Horizon Robotics. The JV was named Carizon and was aimed to develop in-house vehicle software for Volkswagen. At the 2023

World Internet Conference The World Internet Conference (WIC; zh, s=世界互联网大会, labels=no), also known as the Wuzhen Summit ( zh, s=乌镇峰会, labels=no), is an annual event, first held in 2014, organized by the government of the People's Republic of China ...

, Yu announced that the number of vehicles featuring navigate on autopilot (NoA) equipped with Horizon Robotics chips has surpassed that of Nvidia. According to a report from China Money Network, Horizon Robotics controlled 49% of the Chinese self-driving chip market in 2023. In March 2024, Horizon Robotics submitted its IPO application to the

Hong Kong Stock Exchange The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (, SEHK, also known as Hong Kong Stock Exchange) is a stock exchange based in Hong Kong. It is one of the largest stock exchanges in Asia and the List of major stock exchanges, 9th largest globally by market ...

expected to raise $500 million. In October 2024, the offering was priced at the top of its price range raising $696 million. In January 2025, Horizon Robotics announced its goal of shipping over 10 million chips in 2025.

Products

While Horizon Robotics mainly focuses on developing AI chips used in the automobile industry, it also develops its Sunrise line of AI chips that are used in

surveillance cameras Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of closed-circuit television cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signal ...

and other internet-connected

smart devices A smart device is an electronic device, generally connected to other devices or networks via different wireless protocols (such as Bluetooth, Zigbee, near-field communication, Wi-Fi, NearLink, Li-Fi, or 5G) that can operate to some extent inte ...

. It holds partnerships with Chery,

Audi Audi AG () is a German automotive manufacturer of luxury vehicles headquartered in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany. A subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group, Audi produces vehicles in nine production facilities worldwide. The origins of the compa ...

SAIC Motor SAIC Motor Corp., Ltd. (formerly Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation) is a Chinese State-owned enterprises of China, state-owned automobile manufacturer headquartered in Anting, Shanghai. Founded in 1955, it is currently the largest of the ...

and

SK Telecom SK Telecom Co., Ltd., abbreviated as SKT ( or ) is a South Korean wireless telecommunications operator and former film distributor and is part of the SK Group, one of the country's largest chaebols. It leads the local market with 50.5 perce ...

Journey 2

The Journey 2 was released in 2019, and was the first automotive AI chip made by a Chinese company. It uses Horizon's self-developed Brain Processing Unit (BPU)2.0 architecture, and is capable of over 4 TOPS of compute performance while consuming 2 watts of power. It has a multicore CPU consisting of ARM Cortex-A53 cores clocked at up to 1.5GHz, 640GB/s internal bandwidth bus,

Journey 3

The Journey 3 was released in September 2020. It continues to use the BPU2.0 architecture and is fabricated on TSMC's 16nm node, now providing 5TOPS while using 2.5 watts of power. Applications include Li Auto One.

Journey 5

The Journey 5 uses eight

ARM Cortex-A55 The ARM Cortex-A55 is a central processing unit implementing the ARMv8.2-A 64-bit instruction set designed by ARM Holdings' Cambridge design centre. The Cortex-A55 is a 2-wide decode in-order superscalar pipeline. Design The Cortex-A55 serves ...

in its CPU for 26k DMIPS, and has a GPU capable of 128TOPS using Horizon's Bayesian BPU architecture. Its ISP is capable of handling 16 HD cameras and supports 4x4 MIPI to support 4K cameras. It is produced on TSMC's 16nm FinFET process node. It received SGS-TÜV's ISO 26262 ASIL-B automotive safety certification in June 2021.

Journey 6

The Journey 6 generation of chips was first teased in 2023, with specs of only the top of the line 6P revealed. The full lineup of chips was announced on 25 April 2024, when more details specifications of the 6B, 6E, 6M, and 6P were revealed at the launch presentation. This generation introduces the BPU3.0 architecture known as Nash, the use of larger ARM Cortex-78AE cores from the high-performance Cortex-A7X series which are capable of

out-of-order execution In computer engineering, out-of-order execution (or more formally dynamic execution) is an instruction scheduling paradigm used in high-performance central processing units to make use of instruction cycles that would otherwise be wasted. In t ...

, and 3D GPU visualization using ARM's Mali G78AE architecture. According to Horizon, the Nash BPU architecture was designed to handle high-parameter transformer models, and is optimized to run end-to-end architectures. The Journey 6 series integrates the CPU, BPU, GPU, and MCU into a single SoC, increasing performance while reducing cost, power consumption, and simplifying board design. This high degree of integration and hardware simplification allows the Journey 6 to act as a plug-and-play solution, allowing for easy hardware upgrades for automakers and users which Horizon compares to upgrading a desktop PC's graphics card.

Journey 6B

The Journey 6B was announced on 25 April 2024 and is aimed at entry-level active safety ADAS solutions. Horizon Robotics said that the chip got orders from Tier 1 suppliers Bosch and Denso, along with NavInfo, Furuitech and Youjia Innovation.

Journey 6E & 6M

The Journey 6E and 6M are positioned as cost effective solutions for highway NOA systems with some urban capabilities. It meets the AEC-Q104 standard and reduces costs and power consumption through high integration. Initial automotive customers include SAIC, Volkswagen Group, BYD, Li Auto,

GAC Gac or GAC may refer to: *Gấc, pronounced �ək̚˧˦ a Southeast Asian fruit of the species ''Momordica cochinchinensis'' *Gać (disambiguation), a common Polish place-name Acronyms Companies and organisations * GAC Group, a Chinese automo ...

Deepal Deepal Automobile Technology Co., Ltd. () is an electric vehicle manufacturing company owned by Changan Automobile. The company was originally named Chongqing Changan New Energy Automobile Technology founded in 2018 and became an independent bran ...

BAIC Beijing Automotive Group Co., Ltd. (BAIC, formerly as Beijing Automotive Industry Corporation) is a Chinese State-owned enterprises of China, state-owned automobile manufacturer headquartered in Shunyi District, Shunyi, Beijing. Founded in 1958 ...

, Exeed Sterra, and Voyah, and Tier 1 customers include Bosch,

Luxshare Luxshare Precision Industry Co. Ltd., also known as Luxshare-ICT, is a Chinese electronic components manufacturer. Luxshare Precision is headquartered in Bao'an District, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, and is listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange ...

, Huaqin, and TzTek, with interest shown from

Continental Continental may refer to: Places * Continental, Arizona, a small community in Pima County, Arizona, US * Continental, Ohio, a small town in Putnam County, US Arts and entertainment * ''Continental'' (album), an album by Saint Etienne * Continen ...

Denso is a global automotive components manufacturer headquartered in the city of Kariya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan. After becoming independent from Toyota Motor, the company was founded as in 1949. About 25% of the company is owned by Toyota. Despi ...

Valeo Valeo is a French global automotive supplier headquartered in France, listed on the Paris Stock Exchange ( CAC Next 20 Index). It supplies a wide range of products to automakers and the aftermarket. The Group employs 113,600 people in 29 countri ...

, and ZF.

Journey 6P

The Journey 6P is the most powerful chip design by Horizon Robotics to date, and is intended for high-end full-scenario NOA solutions. The chip contains 37 billion transistors and is fabricated on TSMC's 7nm, and contains a 18-core CPU capable of 410kDMIPS, is capable of 560TOPS from its 4 Nash BPU cores, and uses LPDDR5x8533RAM for a total of 204GB/s of bandwidth. It has an ISP with 24 channels capable of processing 4Kvideo or other sensors including up to 18MP front-facing cameras, mmWave radar and LiDAR data. Mass production of the 6P is expected to start in the third quarter of 2025.

References

External links

* {{Electronics industry in China 2015 establishments in China 2024 initial public offerings Companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange Electronics companies established in 2015 Manufacturing companies based in Beijing Semiconductor companies of China