Waymo's Custom Chip

The Signal · 2026-08-22

Waymo just built its own brain. Alphabet's robotaxi unit designed a custom computer chip to rapidly process raw data from cameras, lidar, and radar. It's a push into vertical integration aimed at improving performance and cutting hardware costs across the self-driving fleet.

Also today: Japan will seek another 944 million dollars for Rapidus in its 2027 budget, funding 2-nanometer chips to cut reliance on foreign foundries.

TechCrunch says it pushed Anthropic's Opus 4.6 past the company's ban on sexually explicit content with relatively little effort.

That's today's Signal. Thanks for watching.