BYD Unveils Xuanji A3, China’s Most Powerful 4nm In-House Self-Driving Chip

BYD has unveiled what it says is China’s most powerful chip for self-driving cars, in a broader push to strengthen its in-house technology and speed up advanced driver-assistance features across its vehicles. The company introduced the chip alongside other smart-driving upgrades at a launch event, according to Bloomberg and other reports.

The chip, called Xuanji A3, is described as BYD’s first in-house developed assisted-driving chip and China’s first automotive-grade 4-nanometer chip for self-driving applications. Reporting from The Next Web said the chip delivers 700 TOPS of computing power per chip, while a Wikipedia summary of BYD’s launch says a full vehicle setup using three chips can exceed 2,100 TOPS. The same source said the chip was developed, designed and tested by BYD Semiconductor and has already entered mass production.

The announcement matters because it shows how aggressively China’s largest electric vehicle maker is trying to reduce reliance on foreign technology in a strategic area. BYD has been expanding its “God’s Eye” driver-assistance system, and the new chip is intended to support more advanced automation, including higher levels of self-driving capability. According to the available reporting, the chip supports L3 and L4 autonomous-driving functions, though those capabilities depend on the overall system and regulatory approval, not just the chip itself.

BYD’s move also reflects intensifying competition in China’s electric-vehicle and semiconductor sectors. The company has made a point of building major components in-house, from batteries to vehicle platforms, and the chip launch extends that strategy into the computing hardware behind smart driving. Bloomberg reported that the debut was part of a package of technology advances aimed at reinforcing BYD’s position as the world’s largest EV maker.

The launch comes as China’s biggest technology groups race to close the gap with U.S. and Taiwanese rivals in advanced chips. Bloomberg separately reported that Huawei is working on plans to narrow China’s semiconductor gap with the U.S., underscoring how central chip independence has become for the country’s tech champions. In that context, BYD’s new chip is not just a product announcement but also part of a broader industrial push.

For drivers and car buyers, the immediate impact will depend on how quickly BYD rolls the chip into production models and how widely it can deploy its upgraded smart-driving system. According to the reporting, BYD has already begun mass production of the chip, suggesting that vehicles equipped with the new hardware could begin reaching the market soon.