Four Chinese electric vehicle brands are set to use Nvidia technology as the brains for their autonomous driving systems, the US chipmaker announced at the CES technology conference in Las Vegas on Monday.

China’s Li Auto, Great Wall Motor, Zeekr and the new EV unit of Chinese consumer electronics company Xiaomi will use Nvidia’s DRIVE technology to power automated driving, the chipmaker said.

The move underscores the US chipmaker’s determination to expand in China despite Washington’s tighter export rules.

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China’s rising EV brands are a key market for automotive technology makers as they race each other to launch more automated driving functions and advanced in-vehicle infotainment displays.

That presents a huge growth opportunity for US chip giants like Nvidia, Intel and Qualcomm.

But Nvidia and its US-based rivals face tightening US controls on exports of advanced chips to China as they rush to meet demands from Chinese customers.

Nvidia, in particular, has had to tweak its chip offerings to China multiple times, to reduce the capabilities of its artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductors to adhere to Washington’s demands.

But that has now led Chinese technology giants like Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu to turn down Nvidia’s slower chips and turn to homegrown chipmakers like Huawei instead.

• Reuters, with additional editing by Vishakha Saxena

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