China’s e-vehicle leader Li Auto hunts chip talent in Singapore

Li Auto, an electric vehicle maker beloved by young Chinese families, is ramping up its efforts to build in-house chip cars and has gone overseas to scout for talent along the way.

The eight-year-old company is currently hiring for five positions in Singapore to develop silicon carbide (SiC) power modules, an electrical component that uses SiC semiconductors in switching, according to the company’s LinkedIn. recruitment notices that were posted yesterday.

The headcount includes the hiring of a general manager, who will be responsible for establishing Li Auto’s R&D center in the city-state and shaping the power semiconductor technology and product roadmaps for the company.

The Singapore hire is only a small fraction of the reported team of around 160 people Li Auto has assembled to work on automotive chips, according to the Chinese technology news blog LatePost. The head of the company’s semiconductor efforts is reportedly its chief technology officer Yan Xiwhose background is primarily in software engineering at Chinese giants such as Huawei and Alibaba.

TechCrunch has reached out to Li Auto for comment on the story.

Led by Internet entrepreneurs, Li Auto, Nio and Xpeng are a trio of new EV startups in China that have defied expectations that their limited manufacturing experience would prevent them from gaining substantial ground in the competitive, deeply entrenched auto market.

Among them, Li Auto has stood out with its sales figures. In the third quarter, the Beijing-based automaker shipped over 100,000 vehiclesmore than double Xpeng’s record of 40,000 the same period. (Nio hasn’t announced third-quarter results, but in Q2delivered approximately 23,500 vehicles.)

Manufacturing disruptions during COVID-19 have highlighted the importance of supply chain stability for automakers around the world, and this is true for Chinese electric vehicle companies that rely on both power semiconductors for motor control and export chips for advanced assisted driving, which has become a major selling point to domestic consumers.

These companies are also increasingly wary of potential chip sanctions as relations between China and the US continue to deteriorate. The large model language space has already taken a big hit after the Biden administration restricted Nvidia’s high-end artificial intelligence chips in China.

While China has its own domestic answers to Nvidia’s auto-grade chips, such as Black Sesame and Horizon Robotics, Li Auto, Xpeng and Nio have all committed investment to create their own chips, following in the footsteps of the American their Tesla bond.

In September, for example, Neo was released its first proprietary system-on-a-chip (SoC) for lidar. Back in 2021, the then head of autonomous vehicles Xpeng Xinzhou Wu he hinted that the company may consider working on AV chips. Wu, a Qualcomm veteran, recently left Xpeng for a senior position at Nvidia, a move that has been seen as the semiconductor giant’s attempt to catch up in the auto-chipmaking game.