Nvidia to ship Vera Rubin AI chip as Mercedes-Benz rolls out advanced driver assistance
The new processor promises sharply lower costs and power use for AI training and inference, while carmakers prepare to deploy Nvidia-powered systems comparable to Tesla’s Autopilot.
NVIDIA will begin shipping a new artificial intelligence chip later this year, as Mercedes-Benz prepares to deliver vehicles equipped with Nvidia self-driving technology offering functionality comparable to Tesla Autopilot.
Speaking at CES in Las Vegas, Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang said the chip, known as Vera Rubin, has been in development for three years and is designed to deliver significantly more computing performance while consuming less power than previous generations. The processor succeeds Nvidia’s Blackwell architecture and is aimed squarely at the growing demands of large-scale AI training and deployment.
Nvidia said Rubin chips are already being manufactured and will begin shipping to customers, including Microsoft and Amazon, in the second half of the year. According to the company, organisations will be able to train AI models using roughly one-quarter as many Rubin chips as would be required with Blackwell, while delivering responses for chatbots and other AI applications at around one-tenth of the cost.
The company also pointed to redesigned supercomputer systems intended to support the new chips. By reducing cabling and simplifying installation, Nvidia said it can accelerate deployment in data centres and improve overall efficiency. Those gains are increasingly important as operators grapple with soaring electricity demand linked to the global build-out of AI infrastructure.
Nvidia framed the Rubin launch as a way to lower the economic and environmental barriers to AI development. The company said the improved efficiency could help organisations rein in costs and begin to address the energy pressures created by the rapid expansion of data centres worldwide.
Alongside the data centre push, Nvidia said Mercedes-Benz will start shipping cars equipped with its self-driving technology, marking another step in the company’s effort to apply its AI platforms beyond the cloud. While details of the automotive rollout were limited, Nvidia positioned the system as offering advanced driver assistance on par with Tesla’s Autopilot.
The shipments fulfil a commitment Huang made last March, when he first outlined the Vera Rubin chip at Nvidia’s annual developer conference in San Jose, California. With customers now preparing to deploy the hardware at scale, Nvidia is betting that improved performance per watt will be critical as AI moves from experimentation to industrial infrastructure.
The Recap
- Nvidia to ship new Vera Rubin chip later this year.
- Rubin needs one-quarter as many chips to train models.
- Mercedes‑Benz will begin shipping cars with Nvidia self-driving technology.
