(Yicai Global) Aug. 4 -- Global chip giant NVIDIA has obtained a 3 percent stake in TuSimple, a Beijing-based start-up focused on the development of autonomous trucks.

The investment is part of TuSimple's B-round financing, but the company did not disclose the investment amount. TuSimple will close B-round financing in the fourth quarter with funding set to surpass USD30 million, online news site All Weather TMT said.

NVIDIA has established ties with Chinese and American autonomous driving companies and previously unveiled a startup program named 'NVIDIA Inception Program.' The company has cooperated with 1300 AI companies in all verticals, but this marks the first time it has invested in a Chinese autonomous driving company.

NVIDIA reached an investment plan with the company several months ago and will establish related R&D centers in Beijing and San Diego, California, the US, TuSimple CEO Mo Chen said.

Founded in 2015, TuSimple is dedicated to developing a drive solution that focuses on visual perceptions for applications in the unmanned highway transportation sector.

TuSimple uses several products from NVIDIA to support its research into drives, mainly including hardware products Drive PX 2, K80, Titian X, 1080, 1080 Ti, TX1 and TX2, as well as back-end products like CUDA and cuDNN, and NVIDIA Profiling tools.