Aquantia Wins Big With Nvidia Partnership

January 30, 2018 by Chris Lange

Aquantia Corp. (NYSE: AQ) saw its shares make a handy gain on Tuesday after it was announced that the firm would be partnering with Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA). Specifically, Aquantia announced solutions for multi-gig Ethernet connectivity in autonomous vehicles today, as well as a major design win with Nvidia in the company’s new DRIVE Xavier and DRIVE Pegasus platforms.

Nvidia DRIVE AI car computers use deep learning to process data from multiple cameras, radar, LIDAR and other sensors throughout the vehicle. To deliver Level 4 and Level 5 driving — which is categorized as a fully autonomous vehicle — hundreds of trillions of deep learning operations per second (TOPS) need to receive and process sensor data and immediately communicate critical decisions throughout the vehicle’s systems.

In turn, the Aquantia Ethernet products communicate the data and decisions back and forth throughout the system at 10 Gbps over automotive Ethernet cables to help provide a seamless autonomous experience.

Faraj Aalaei, board chair and chief executive of Aquantia, commented:

The NVIDIA DRIVE platform uses redundant and diverse functions to achieve the highest level of safety, for which Multi-Gig connectivity is an absolute necessity. Aquantia was the first to drive the standards that introduced Multi-Gig connectivity into other markets, and we have maintained a leadership position while transitioning those markets to higher speeds. We are pleased to collaborate with NVIDIA to be the first to provide this crucial building block to the automotive industry to enable a safe self-driving experience.

Gary Hicok, senior vice president of hardware development at Nvidia, added:

Each autonomous vehicle is a moving, self-contained data center, powered by an energy-efficient AI supercomputer that you can hide in the trunk. To achieve a safe self-driving experience, we require secure, reliable, redundant Multi-Gig networks to move vast amounts of data.

Shares of Aquantia traded up about 4.5% at $12.11 on Tuesday, with a consensus analyst price target of $14.80 and a post-IPO trading range of $9.01 to $13.80.

Nvidia traded down 1.5% at $243.15 a share, with a consensus price target of $213.69 and a 52-week range of $95.17 to $248.11.

Take This Retirement Quiz To Get Matched With An Advisor Now (Sponsored)

Are you ready for retirement? Planning for retirement can be overwhelming, that’s why it could be a good idea to speak to a fiduciary financial advisor about your goals today.

Start by taking this retirement quiz right here from SmartAsset that will match you with up to 3 financial advisors that serve your area and beyond in 5 minutes. Smart Asset is now matching over 50,000 people a month.

Click here now to get started.