Overview

Where real-time AI meets the real world

AI Summary

Autonomous machines, vehicles, and robotics are converging around a single imperative: real-time AI that can sense, decide, and act under power, safety, and reliability constraints. As AI scales across physical systems, power efficiency and a broad software ecosystem become decisive advantages. The Arm compute platform for physical AI delivers both, providing the foundation for building and scaling autonomous systems globally.

Benefits

Powering intelligent physical AI on Arm

Arm enables safe, real-time, energy-efficient AI systems that sense, decide, and act reliably in the physical world.

Deterministic real-time performance

Low-latency, predictable compute for perception, planning, and control in dynamic environments.

Efficient, scalable compute

Leading performance efficiency across heterogeneous workloads, from motor control to AI inference and centralized autonomy.

Proven ecosystem, faster deployment

A mature software foundation and pre-integrated platforms that reduce complexity and accelerate time to market.

Safety-ready foundation

Architectures engineered to support functional safety across automotive, robotics, and industrial systems.

arm-and-tensor-partnership

Deliver AI-defined compute foundation for world’s first personal robocar

Tensor is integrating more than 400 Arm-based cores per vehicle, underpinning its AI-first approach to Level 4 autonomy. Through this partnership, Tensor is leveraging the Arm® compute platform, which unifies hardware, software and ecosystem enablement, to power physical AI workloads spanning the entire vehicle.

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Segments

Enabling the physical AI revolution

  • SDV icon
    AI-defined vehicles
  • Arm icon - Physical AI
    Robotics

Centralized compute for full vehicle autonomy

Powering the transition from L2+ ADAS to fully autonomous L4 and L5 robotaxis and consumer vehicles,. Arm scalable compute is the foundation for the AI-defined vehicle. It enables the centralized, high-performance processing required for complex sensor fusion, perception, and planning.

Automotive SDV

Scalable compute from motor control to AI planning

Arm heterogeneous compute architecture provides power-efficient performance for everything from real-time motor control to high-level AI planning, enabling the next generation of advanced robotics, from humanoid robots requiring immense compute for bipedal locomotion and dexterous manipulation to autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) transforming warehouse logistics.

Humanoid robot performing logistics task by carrying a package.
Compute platform

Arm Zena Compute Subsystems (CSS) Platform

In an AI-defined era, vehicle compute demands continue to grow. Arm delivers solutions that help reduce development time and improve total cost of ownership by providing pre-configured, ready-to-use subsystems ready to use. Arm Zena CSS is verified, validated, and certified, delivering high-performance compute for autonomous, infotainment, and evolving AI workloads.

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Partners
Vehicle perception system detecting surrounding traffic with advanced sensors.

Autonomous mobility
Lenovo scaling L4 robotaxis

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Autonomous mobile robots used for logistics and industrial automation.

Robotics
ROBOTIS powering AI robots

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Nuro story

Autonomous mobility
Nuro autonomous driving technology

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FAQs

FAQs

What is physical AI?

Physical AI refers to intelligent systems that can sense, decide, and act in the real world. This includes autonomous vehicles, humanoid robots, industrial automation systems, and intelligent drones that operate under real-time, power, and safety constraints.

How does physical AI differ from edge AI?

Edge AI focuses on running AI locally on devices for responsiveness and privacy. Physical AI extends this concept into autonomous systems that must interact safely with the physical world, requiring deterministic real-time performance, functional safety, and scalable compute.

Why is real-time performance critical for physical AI?

Autonomous machines operate in dynamic environments where delays can impact safety and reliability. Deterministic, low-latency compute ensures systems can process sensor data, make decisions, and execute actions predictably and safely.

How does Arm support safety-critical autonomous systems?

Arm provides architectures engineered to support functional safety, along with scalable compute platforms and a mature software ecosystem that enable partners to build standards-aligned, safety-ready systems across automotive, robotics, and industrial markets.

What types of markets does the physical AI business unit support?

The physical AI BU supports AI-defined vehicles, advanced robotics, industrial automation, and other autonomous systems that require efficient, scalable, and safety-capable compute foundations.

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