DETROIT, March 18 (Reuters) - Nvidia ( NVDA ) said on

Monday it is expanding its collaborations with BYD

and other Chinese automakers that are racing to build

self-driving vehicles and AI-augmented infotainment technology

to compete in global markets.

BYD, which overtook Tesla last year as the world's

No. 1 electric vehicle manufacturer, will use Nvidia's ( NVDA ) next

generation of in-vehicle chips, called Drive Thor, to enable

increased levels of autonomous driving and other digital

functions, Nvidia ( NVDA ) said.

BYD will also use Nvidia ( NVDA ) technology to streamline factories

and its supply chain, as well as to develop virtual showrooms,

Nvidia ( NVDA ) Vice President for Automotive Danny Shapiro said during a

conference call.

"Drive Thor is going into BYD (vehicles) next year," Shapiro

said.

Chinese automakers BYD, Xpeng ( XPEV ) and GAC Aion's Hyper

brand are among several automakers and autonomous truck

developers that announced expanded collaborations with Nvidia ( NVDA ) on

Monday as part of the chipmaker's GTC developer conference in

San Jose, California. Chinese automakers Zeekr, a unit of Geely,

and Li Auto ( LI ) had previously said they would use

Nvidia's ( NVDA ) Drive Thor technology.

Chinese auto brands are turning to Nvidia ( NVDA ) as they use

advanced technology to compensate for what they currently lack

in global brand recognition. BYD and its rivals are driving to

expand sales in Europe, Southeast Asia and other markets outside

China, while competing with Tesla and other established Western

vehicle brands in their home market.

"There's a massive number of Chinese automakers," Shapiro

said. "They have a lot of incentives in place to innovate, a lot

of regulation that's favorable" to developing increasing levels

of automated driving.

Among other new automotive and industrial partnerships

announced by Nvidia ( NVDA ) on Monday is a collaboration with U.S.

software company Cerence ( CRNC ) to adapt large language model

artificial-intelligence systems for in-car computing, Shapiro

said.

Chinese computer maker Lenovo ( LNVGF ) is also

collaborating with Nvidia ( NVDA ) on large language model deployment,

Nvidia ( NVDA ) said.

Soundhound will use Nvidia ( NVDA ) technology to develop an

in-vehicle voice command system that could allow a vehicle owner

to obtain information from a virtual owners manual using speech

commands.

Nvidia ( NVDA ) did not refer to OpenAI or other large language model

AI developers by name.