Intel Expands Automotive Ambitions with New AI SoC and Strategic Partnerships at Auto Shanghai 2025

At the 2025 Auto Shanghai event, Intel unveiled its second-generation AI-enhanced Software-Defined Vehicle (SDV) SoC, reaffirming its commitment to shaping the future of intelligent mobility. The tech giant also announced new strategic partnerships with Black Sesame Technologies, Mentech, and BOS Semiconductors, aimed at accelerating the development of next-generation smart vehicles.

As the automotive industry undergoes a paradigm shift toward software-defined and AI-driven architectures, Intel's latest moves signal a major push to become a central player in the intelligent automotive ecosystem.

Powering the Cabin and the Road: Partnership with Black Sesame Technologies

Intel and Black Sesame Technologies jointly introduced a cutting-edge cockpit-driving fusion platform, combining Intel’s new AI-enhanced SDV SoC with Black Sesame’s Huashan A2000 and Wudang C1200 chip families. The hybrid platform delivers compute performance well beyond standalone chip solutions, supporting Level 2+ to Level 4 autonomous driving while also enabling enhanced in-vehicle infotainment experiences.

The two companies plan to release a reference design for the fusion platform in Q2 2025, with mass production to follow soon after.

Redefining In-Vehicle Human-Machine Interaction: Collaboration with Mentech

Intel has formed a strategic partnership with Mentech, aiming to develop an edge-native intelligent cockpit system. The collaboration marks a milestone with the industry’s first purely edge-based GUI AI assistant for vehicles.

Leveraging Intel’s hardware advantages in compute and memory bandwidth, combined with Mentech’s highly optimized lightweight language models, the new system provides:

Offline voice command recognition

Contextual memory

Personalized service recommendations

Seamless screen operation and multi-modal interaction

This integration enables fluid, natural-language-based in-car interaction, even in complex conversational scenarios.

AI-Powered Automotive Platforms: Partnership with BOS Semiconductors

Intel also announced a partnership with South Korea’s BOS Semiconductors, focused on AI acceleration in advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and in-vehicle infotainment. BOS’s Eagle-N AI accelerator chiplet SoC complements Intel’s SDV SoC, offering enhanced AI computing capabilities for next-gen automotive platforms.

Intel’s open hardware and software architecture played a key role in enabling this collaboration, offering automakers flexibility, scalability, and faster time-to-market as the industry rapidly transitions toward AI-driven solutions.

With these collaborations, Intel continues to build a comprehensive and open smart car ecosystem, aligning with its broader strategy to lead the transformation of the automotive industry through AI, edge computing, and scalable architectures.