Shares of Chinese autonomous vehicle company WeRide (WRD) have rocketed 135% higher over two days after artificial intelligence chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA) revealed it took a $24 million stake in the stock.
WRD stock surged 83% on Tuesday and followed it up with a 28% gain on Wednesday. In pre-market trading Thursday morning, however, some investors were taking profits in the self-driving vehicle company as shares were trading down 4.2%.
In a Form 13F-HR filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, Nvidia said it bought over 1.7 million shares of WRD stock, which sent the AV company soaring 130% at one point.
The Chinese company is very new to the public markets, having only IPO’d last October. While the stock was only up 3% since then prior to Nvidia’s announcement, news it had been selected as an AV project supplier in Switzerland had seen WRD shares start to gain ground.
Nvidia has been hinting it was very interested in the automotive market. Its automotive segment revenues rose 72% year-over-year to $449 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2025 and CFO Nichole Kress pointed out Nvidia’s Orin family of embedded AI computers, such as the DRIVE Orin system-on-a-chip and Jetson Orin modules, were increasingly being incorporated into self-driving cars.
The chipmaker has been a major supplier to Tesla (TSLA) and recently expanded its collaboration with Volvo (VLVLY) on the EX90, a battery electric vehicle built on its DRIVE Thor platform.
Nvidia has also been investing in the China auto market to focus on self-driving vehicles and the country is testing more AVs than anywhere else. WeRide is the leading player in the space operating in 30 cities across nine countries.
It’s still possible WRD stock will close the day higher, but after Nvidia’s investment, it’s clear this company is the one to watch in self-driving autos.
