- Nio plans to cede a small stake to strategic investors and will retain control over its chip project, according to local media.
- Nio's chip team, which currently exists as a business unit, will become a separate project entity in the future.
Nio (NYSE: NIO) plans to bring in strategic investors for its chip-related business, local media outlet LatePost said in a report today, citing multiple independent sources.
The electric vehicle (EV) maker's chip team, which currently exists as a business unit, will become a separate project entity in the future, the report said, citing a document.
Nio plans to cede a small stake to strategic investors and will continue to maintain control over the chip project entity, according to the report.
When asked about this, a Nio source called it speculative information, LatePost noted.
One industry source speculated that Nio may only bring in external funding, with equity in the project entity held by Nio and external investors, and the in-house chip research team remaining within the Nio system.
Another possibility is that Nio may set up an employee shareholding platform, which will hold all the shares of the project entity together with Nio and external investors, realizing a de facto spin-off of the business, the source said.
Another industry source believes that Nio's chip R&D program has gone through an intense development cycle and that operating costs will be significantly reduced in the short term.
With the world's first automotive-grade 5-nanometer smart driving chip, Shenji NX9031, in mass production and loaded on vehicles, the team's in-house research strength has been recognized by the market, attracting the interest and attention of some industrial investors, LatePost said.
It is worth noting that a Nio subsidiary was registered yesterday in Hefei, Anhui, where its two factories are located, and is likely to be its chip business entity.
The company is named Anhui Shengji Technology Co Ltd and was registered on June 17, with its legal representative being Nio's vice president Bai Jian, according to information from data provider Tianyancha.
Its registered capital is RMB 10 million ($1.39 million), and its business scope includes chip design and sales.
Nio launched its chip program in 2021 and released its in-house smart driving chip Shenji NX9031 in December 2023.
ET9, which began deliveries at the end of March, are powered by two Shenji NX9031 smart driving chips, and Nio said that a single Shenji chip has the computing power of four mainstream autonomous driving chips combined.
Nio updated its main-selling models, the ET5, ET5 Touring, ES6, and EC6, in May, and one of the most significant changes is the switch of the smart driving chip from four Nvidia Orin X chips to one Shenji NX9031.
Bringing in external investors to develop the chip business may help Nio achieve its fourth-quarter profitability target, LatePost noted.
In 2024, Nio spent more than $300 million on Nvidia Orin-X chips, and the use of in-house developed chips this year would bring the company an average cost savings of about RMB 10,000 yuan ($1,390) per vehicle, Nio founder, chairman, and CEO William Li said previously.
A few months before the release of the Shenji NX9031 smart driving chip, Nio released the LiDAR main control chip Yangjian, model NX6031, in September 2023.
The Yangjian chip can efficiently capture the raw data of the LiDAR sensor and reduce the power consumption of LiDAR by 50 percent and the latency by 30 percent, Nio previously said.
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