Nvidia Begins Installing Chips on Roads | Rewire News Evening Report

Title: NVIDIA Starts Installing Chips on Roads | Rewire News Evening Report

Author: Rhythm BlockBeats

Source:

Reprinted from: Mars Finance

After labeling a trillion-dollar order, Jensen Huang has also brought BYD and Geely into the autonomous driving arena.

1 | Jensen Huang’s trillion-dollar figure doesn’t include roads

This morning, Jensen Huang announced at GTC that Blackwell and Vera Rubin’s procurement orders will surpass $1 trillion by 2027. This figure is twice the estimate from last year. He added, “We are in high demand, and I am sure the demand will far exceed this number.”

But the $1 trillion is just for data centers. On the same day, NVIDIA announced that BYD, Geely, Nissan, and Isuzu have joined the Drive Hyperion platform to develop Level 4 autonomous driving. The Uber partnership-based robot taxis will launch in Los Angeles and San Francisco in the first half of 2027, covering 28 markets by 2028. Huang called this the “ChatGPT moment for autonomous driving.”

(Source: CNBC / TechCrunch / The Verge)

2 | Kalanick has been lurking for eight years, betting that the physical world is still not automated

Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick revealed the secret operation of Atoms, a robotics company he has run for eight years. Its predecessors are CloudKitchens and City Storage Systems, with thousands of employees, none of whom are allowed to list the company name on LinkedIn. The three business lines focus on food infrastructure, mining automation, and robot chassis. In his open letter, he wrote a defining statement: “Software has already automated language and mathematics, but full automation of the physical world remains uncharted territory.”

According to Fortune, Kalanick is about to acquire Pronto, an autonomous driving company founded by former Uber colleague Anthony Levandowski, with Uber’s support. When he was ousted from Uber eight years ago, autonomous driving was still Waymo’s exclusive domain. Eight years later, he returns with robots, just as NVIDIA announced its “ChatGPT moment” for autonomous driving that same week. The timing is no coincidence; it’s a signal.

(Source: All-In Podcast / Fortune / TechCrunch)

3 | Murata raises prices by 35%, the hidden bill for AI infrastructure arrives

According to 36Kr citing Shanghai Securities News, Murata Manufacturing, the world’s largest MLCC supplier, is launching a comprehensive price increase for AI servers and high-end automotive-grade products, with hikes ranging from 15% to 35%, effective April 1. Murata holds over 40% of the global MLCC market share, and 70% of the MLCC market for AI servers. This is the first large-scale price adjustment in three years.

Everyone is counting GPU prices. Few are paying attention to the cost of capacitors on circuit boards. Murata’s monopoly on passive components for AI servers rivals NVIDIA’s dominance in GPUs, but it doesn’t hold GTC. When the invisible layer of the supply chain begins to price scarcity, the trillion-dollar infrastructure bill will only increase.

(Source: 36Kr / Shanghai Securities News)

4 | SEC wants listed companies to submit reports only twice a year

According to TechCrunch citing WSJ, SEC Chairman Paul Atkins is discussing with exchanges the possibility of allowing listed companies to switch from quarterly to semi-annual reporting. The reason is that the compliance costs of quarterly reports are too high, discouraging companies from going public. This could be the biggest change in the US public disclosure system in over 50 years.

For tech companies heavily investing in AI infrastructure, submitting fewer reports means fewer explanations of “where the money went.” Meta’s quarterly AI capital expenditure can now be hidden in semi-annual reports’ big data. The beneficiaries of deregulation are primarily those companies that need time to prove the long-term correctness of their investments.

(Source: TechCrunch / WSJ)

Worth knowing ↓

Alibaba has established the Alibaba Token Hub business group and is distributing AI tool tokens to all employees. Employees can use paid tools like Wukong and Qoder series for free, and expenses for purchasing Balian Coding Plans or external AI development tools can be reimbursed. From “encouraging trial use” to “company-wide standard,” tokens are becoming the second productivity resource for employees at major tech firms. (Source: 36Kr)

The FDIC is preparing to halt the penetrative insurance for stablecoin deposits. If approved, users holding stablecoins will no longer be able to obtain FDIC deposit protection through issuers. The narrative of stablecoins as “similar to deposits” has just lost its last safety rope due to regulatory intervention. (Source: Payments Dive)

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu faces widespread social media conspiracy theories about deepfake, prompting the government to respond. The so-called “evidence” includes extra fingers in videos and coffee cups defying gravity. During wartime, deepfake technology has shifted from a technical issue to a matter of national security. (Source: The Verge)

Picsart launches an AI Agent marketplace, allowing creators to “hire” AI assistants on demand. The first four agents are now live, with new ones added weekly. Creation platforms are shifting from selling features to selling labor. (Source: TechCrunch)