Aug 23, 2026, 4:03 PMTransportation
1,000 TOPS: Waymo’s Secret Chip Fuels Its Robotaxi Blitz
Waymo built a 5 nm chip delivering 1,000-plus TOPS, giving its Ojai robotaxi the fast, lean brain it needs to chase future profits at scale.
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Summary
A 5 nm custom chip is the muscle behind Waymo’s robotaxi sprint, pushing more than 1,000 TOPS to process raw data from the Ojai vehicle’s 13 cameras before it reaches the self-driving brain. The sixth-generation system now serves all riders in Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Francisco, with performance roughly matching Nvidia’s DRIVE AGX Thor.
Waymo says Ojai is cheaper to build, operate, and maintain, and can react quickly and safely in dense cities. Its chip push also leans on AMD, Micron, Nvidia, Samsung, Sandisk, Socionext, and TSMC. Profit is still the destination, not the arrival.
Positives
- The 5 nm ASIC delivers more than 1,000 TOPS of computing power.
- Ojai is open to all riders across Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Francisco.
- Waymo says Ojai costs less to build, operate, and maintain.
Risks & concerns
- Profit remains a goal despite Ojai’s claimed cost savings.
- NHTSA is investigating a low-speed crash in which a Waymo robotaxi struck a child.
- Waymo’s compute stack still involves seven major technology partners.
Primary sourceTechCrunchhttps://techcrunch.com/2026/08/23/techcrunch-mobility-the-custom-chip-driving-waymos-robotaxi-ambitions/
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