Chinese autonomous driving chip maker Horizon Robotics has passed a major production milestone, with cumulative shipments of its Journey series exceeding 15 million units. The company made the announcement at a ceremony in Shanghai on September 15, revealing that the 15 millionth chip will power the Volkswagen ID. AURA T6. Horizon Robotics also said it will soon release HSD V2.1, its latest version of its autonomous driving software, which will bring advanced driver assistance features to more models.
According to NetEase Auto, the milestone took 11 years to reach, from the first Journey chip to today's scale. By 2026, over 8 million vehicles on the road are equipped with Horizon Robotics chips, and the company claims its share of the ADAS (advanced driver assistance systems) chip market for Chinese self-owned brands exceeded 50% in the first half of 2026.
From chip maker to platform provider
Horizon Robotics CEO Yu Kai, however, is less focused on surpassing competitors than on defining what the company wants to become. In his view, the company's goal is to build an "open computing platform" for the automotive era, similar to how Wintel (Windows and Intel) dominated the PC era or ARM and Android shaped the mobile world.
To achieve this, Horizon Robotics is pursuing two business paths. The first is direct sales of chips and software, which Yu compares to the Wintel model. The second involves licensing chip and software intellectual property (IP), creating an "ARM+Android" style open ecosystem. This dual approach allows Horizon Robotics to serve both automakers that prefer turnkey solutions and those with strong in-house development capabilities.
Yu believes that as the industry matures, about 80% of automakers will choose to work with suppliers, while the remaining 20% will pursue vertical integration. Horizon Robotics aims to serve that 80%, positioning itself not as a disruptor but as a "fellow traveler" alongside automakers. The partnership with Volkswagen, for example, involved over 450,000 kilometers of testing for the ID. AURA T6's HSD system before launch, and Yu acknowledged learning from Volkswagen's rigorous quality and safety standards.
Making ADAS accessible
Horizon Robotics emphasizes "democratizing intelligent driving" - bringing advanced driver assistance features to lower-priced vehicles. The company's Journey 6M chip, for instance, delivers 128 TOPS of computing power. Yu insists that this is achieved not by cutting corners but through hardware-software co-optimization, enabling performance that previously required higher-cost, higher-power chips.
The upcoming HSD V2.1 software, following the V2.0 release in June, adds full-scenario reversing capability and uses an end-to-end model for direct trajectory output, improving handling in situations like getting unstuck and navigating narrow passages. Yu describes this approach as "outward expansion" - competing by expanding capability boundaries rather than engaging in low-quality price wars.
Looking globally, Horizon Robotics has partnerships with Volkswagen, Toyota, and global Tier 1 suppliers such as Bosch, Denso, and Astemo. The company reports overseas orders exceeding 20 million units. Yu notes that overseas markets have more mature ADAS demand but will take longer to adopt high-level autonomous driving. He expects the Chinese market to feel competitive pressure without urban NOA (city-level navigation assistance), but overseas markets may not reach that stage for some time.
For Horizon Robotics, the 15 million milestone validates its mass production and ecosystem capabilities. The next challenge is proving that its platform model can continue to expand. As Yu puts it, the company's English name, Horizon Robotics, reflects its founding vision: to become the computing platform for the robotics era.
