Former OPPO hardware director and head of Xiaomi's chip business Bai Jian has now joined Nio as hardware VP, reporting directly to Nio founder and chairman William Li Bin, according to industry media CNMO.com.
Bai graduated from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications with a doctorate degree in cryptography and communications engineering, and his appointment shows Nio's determination to develop its own chips, the report said.
The report is consistent with recent rumors. As previously mentioned by cnTechPost, Nio is planning to develop its own self-driving computing chip, and the project is being driven primarily by Li himself.
In line with the plans, Nio has also set up a separate hardware team, internally called "Smart HW (Hardware)". According to 36kr.com, Li has been looking for a technical leader with a silicon-based background since a few months ago.
Sources close to Li said that although the chip project has not yet been discussed by the board of directors, Li's intentions have been clear, and he is thinking about the final structure and has been making some advance communication to the company's executives and shareholders.
The report quoted a chip practitioner as saying that the capital investment required to develop their own chips could range from 1 billion yuan to 1 billion US dollars, depending on the extent of research and development.
Just this August, Ren Shaoqing, former director of R&D at Momenta, has joined Nio as assistant vice president, reporting directly to William Li Bin, who, according to public records, was formerly director of R&D at Momenta.
According to public records, the latter, a former director of R&D at Momenta, is a graduate of the joint PhD program between the University of Science and Technology of China and Microsoft Research Asia.
In response to the chip-making report, Nio was quoted by iAutoDaily as saying, "Nio has been continuing to invest in the field of automated driving technology. We will communicate details about AD's specific technology route, research and development hardware and software when the time is right, and we can't respond to market rumors one by one."
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