On April 23, 2025, SemiDrive Technology officially released its new generation of AI cockpit chip X10 at the 2025 Shanghai Auto Show. With its 4nm advanced manufacturing process, 7B parameter multi-modal large model end-to-side deployment capabilities, industry-leading memory bandwidth, and rich functional integration, this chip has attracted widespread attention in the industry since its debut. So, can the SemiDrive X10 chip really reshape the intelligent cockpit pattern in 2026? Below, China Exportsemi will conduct an in-depth analysis from many aspects, such as technical specifications, industry status and trends, market competitiveness, and challenges and opportunities.
1. Technical Specifications: The perfect combination of super computing power and bandwidth
Strong performance of CPU, GPU and NPU: The X10 chip is equipped with a CPU based on the Arm v9.2 architecture, with a computing power of up to 200K DMIPS. At the same time, its GPU computing power reaches 1.8 TFLOPS, which can meet complex graphics processing needs, such as high-quality 3D rendering and video processing. The NPU computing power is up to 40 TOPS, which is optimized for AI inference tasks and provides efficient computing support for the operation of large models.
Ultra-large memory bandwidth: The chip supports 128-bit wide 9600MT/s LPDDR5x memory, and the system memory bandwidth is up to 154GB/s, which is more than twice that of the current mass-produced flagship cockpit chip. This excellent memory bandwidth enables the X10 chip to run large-scale models while deploying multiple small models, and supports flexible scheduling of multiple AI inference tasks to achieve effective coordination of AI tasks with different priorities.
Rich functional module integration: The X10 chip also embeds functional modules such as ISP, audio DSP, 4Kp120 video CODEC, 8K display engine, etc., and supports UFS 4.0, PCIe 5.0, USB 3.1/2.0 and 2.5GbE/1GbE TSN Ethernet and other interface protocols, providing rich data transmission capabilities and ensuring efficient communication between various devices and systems in the cockpit.
Powerful perception capability: The chip integrates a wealth of sensor interfaces, in addition to traditional voice recognition, it also supports the state perception of occupants in the car, the environment outside the vehicle, and obtains the status and location information of the vehicle through the body network. This information will provide a full range of information input for the multi-modal AI model, further improve the intelligence level of the intelligent cockpit, and achieve more natural and intelligent human-computer interaction.
Figure: SemiDrive X10 chip sets a new benchmark for cockpit processors in the AI era
2. Industry status and trends: The intelligent cockpit market has huge potential
In recent years, with the rapid development of automotive intelligence, the intelligent cockpit market has shown a vigorous development trend. According to relevant forecasts, the global smart cockpit market will grow from about $45 billion in 2025 to about $60 billion in 2030, with a compound annual growth rate of about 5.5%. The increasing demand for intelligent automotive experience has prompted automakers and related suppliers to increase R&D investment in the field of intelligent cockpits.
In the development of intelligent cockpits, the application of AI technology has become one of the key driving forces. From the original voice assistant to today's multimodal interaction, AI has brought richer and more natural interaction methods to the intelligent cockpit. With the continuous maturity of large-scale model technology, the introduction of large-scale cockpit has become a new trend in the development of the industry. At present, there are already some intelligent cockpit chips on the market that can support small-scale AI models, but products like the SemiDrive X10 chip that can support the end-side deployment of 7B parameter multi-modal large models are still relatively scarce.
3. Market competitiveness: Comparison with giants such as Qualcomm and NVIDIA
Compared with Qualcomm Snapdragon series chips: Qualcomm, as a traditional giant in the smart cockpit chip market, has its Snapdragon 8155 chip that is widely used in the current market. The Snapdragon 8155 uses a 7nm process technology and is equipped with an Arm v8 architecture CPU, and there is a certain gap between its computing power and memory bandwidth and the SemiDrive X10 chip. Qualcomm's upcoming next-generation chips are expected to use more advanced process technology, but in 2026, SemiDrive X10 chips are expected to compete strongly with it in performance with its 4nm process and powerful performance configuration.
Compared with NVIDIA Orin series chips: NVIDIA Orin chips have a high reputation and market share in the field of intelligent driving, and their computing power is strong, but they mainly focus on autonomous driving computing. In terms of intelligent cockpit applications, the cost of the Orin chip is relatively high, and its optimization and adaptability in the cockpit may not be as good as the SemiDrive X10 chip designed specifically for the cockpit. Therefore, in the field of intelligent cockpit, the SemiDrive X10 chip has the opportunity to attract more attention from automakers with its cost-effective and cockpit optimized architecture.
4. Challenges and opportunities: the key force driving the development of the industry
Technical challenges: Although the X10 chip has made significant breakthroughs in performance and functionality, it still faces some technical challenges in practical applications. For example, how to optimize the power management of chips to ensure that they can meet the range requirements of the car while operating at high performance; How to improve the reliability and stability of the chip to cope with the complex vehicle environment and long-term operation requirements.
Market opportunity: With the growing demand for automotive intelligence, the scale of the intelligent cockpit market continues to expand, providing a broad market space for the X10 chip. In addition, with the continuous development of AI technology and the continuous evolution of large models, the X10 chip is expected to win the favor of more automobile manufacturers with its leading technical advantages in the future market competition, break the existing market pattern, and promote the rapid development of the intelligent cockpit industry.
5. Conclusion: A key force that promises to reshape the landscape
As an innovative and forward-looking intelligent cockpit chip product, the X10 chip has shown strong competitiveness in terms of technical specifications, functional integration and performance. Although it may face various challenges in the process of being introduced to the market and widely used, its advantages such as 4nm process, local deployment capability of 7B model, and super computing power and memory bandwidth make it have great development potential in the intelligent cockpit market in 2026 and is expected to become a key force in reshaping the intelligent cockpit landscape. With the launch of the X10 chip, SemiDrive Technology will have the opportunity to occupy a place in the field of intelligent cockpit chips and make important contributions to the development of automotive intelligence.
