Automakers are pouring more than $50 billion into AI talent and compute this year, according to techcrunch.com, as the race to build fully autonomous vehicles accelerates through 2024.
The spending surge follows a two-year hiring binge that saw Ford, GM, Stellantis, VW and Mercedes collectively recruit over 12,000 machine-learning engineers since 2022, techcrunch.com reports. Each company is now budgeting an average of $1.2 billion annually for cloud GPUs, synthetic-data pipelines and on-road test fleets, the outlet notes. The funds are flowing through newly created “software-defined vehicle” divisions that report directly to CEOs and bypass traditional procurement channels, according to techcrunch.com.
The outlays dwarf the $8 billion the same manufacturers spent on electrification R&D in 2023, techcrunch.com highlights, and match the scale of the semiconductor build-out now under way in Europe and the United States. With Tesla already running a 14-exaflop training cluster and Chinese rivals subsidized by state cloud credits, legacy automakers risk losing control of the on-board operating system that determines over-the-air revenue, the publication adds. McKinsey estimates software and services could add $250 billion in annual profit pool for the sector by 2030, techcrunch.com cites.
Ford’s Latitude AI division plans to open a second U.S. command center in Austin by December, techcrunch.com says, while Stellantis has committed to 1,000 additional hires at its new AI hub in Detroit by March 2025. Watchdogs at the California DMV expect to receive at least six new applications for driverless-deployment permits before year-end, according to techcrunch.com, setting up a public scoreboard on which automakers’ billion-dollar bets are actually reaching the road.