Foxconn teams up with US AI startup to speed up autonomous driving

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Taiwanese electronics firm Foxconn, Apple’s largest supplier, is betting on Kneron, a full-stack AI company based in San Diego, to create an ultra-lightweight AI chip for self-driving cars.

Kneron’s AI chips aim to improve the accuracy of image processing by at least 30%, which the company said would be a “significant leap” for autonomous driving.

Chips are a big part of Kneron’s business. It provides both hardware and software solutions that enable generative pre-trained transformer (GPT) models to operate directly on a device – whether a smartphone or a self-driving car – instead of on cloud data centers, said Albert Liu, founder and CEO of Kneron.

Operating GPT models on data centers “gives rise to a range of issues, including high latency, substantial data transfer costs, and deficiencies in user privacy and security protection,” Liu explained. “Kneron’s solutions effectively address these industry bottlenecks by developing hyper-efficient AI chips.”

Kneron is also expanding its partnership with Foxconn – which participated in the startup’s US$97 million series B round – to deploy advanced AI applications more quickly.

Founded in 2015, Kneron has raised over US$190 million to date. Aside from Foxconn, its backers include Horizons Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and Qualcomm Ventures.

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