Horizon CEO Yu Kai: J7 will be the world's most powerful autonomous driving chip

On August 16, Horizon Robotics founder and CEO Yu Kai publicly stated on Weibo that the Journey 7 (J7) will become the world's most powerful autonomous driving chip, emphasizing that "Horizon's 11 years of accumulated software and hardware capabilities are no empty claim."

According to disclosures, Horizon is fully advancing the development of its next-generation intelligent driving chip, the Journey 7 series, with the highest-performance version, J7P, targeting computing power that will significantly surpass NVIDIA's Thor-X, with mass production expected in 2027.

Continuing the family-based strategy of the Journey 6, the J7 will also offer multiple product combinations to cover different tier requirements.

On the architecture front, Yu Kai previously previewed in December that the Journey 7 will feature Horizon's fourth-generation BPU architecture, "Riemann," designed to move toward ultimate artificial intelligence and fully benchmark against Tesla's AI5 chip.

Meanwhile, Horizon's joint venture with Volkswagen, CARIZON, announced that the C7H chip co-developed by both parties is also based on the Riemann architecture, built on the J7 foundation, using a 3–4nm process, with single-chip AI computing power reaching 500–700 TOPS.

In terms of market performance, a report from investment research firm Bernstein shows that in the second quarter of 2026, in China's L2+ intelligent driving market, measured by the number of vehicles equipped, Horizon's share reached 32%, NVIDIA dropped to 28%, and Qualcomm rose to 20%. This marks the first time Horizon has surpassed NVIDIA to become the largest supplier in China's L2+ market.