Chicago-based Citadel increased its position in Nio by 40.3% during the first three months of the year, closing the quarter with 13.2 million shares — a record stake for the hedge fund giant.
The Wall Street firm acquired 3.8 million shares in the Chinese EV maker between January and March.
The holdings were valued at $79.8 million on March 31 and have since declined by around $400,000
Despite surging to $7.00 in mid-April ahead of the Beijing Auto Show, the stock has since lost all its gains.
On Tuesday, US-listed shares of the EV maker closed 2.38% lower at $5.74.
Nio‘s stock has been very volatile in the first four months of the year, having traded as low as $4.38 in early February, despite the company’s announcement of its first-ever profitable quarter.
Citadel’s History in Nio
Citadel has steadily grown its Nio stake over the past three quarters, adding more than 3 million shares in each period and pushing the position to consecutive new records.
The investment firm first bought into Nio in the third quarter of 2018 — around the time of its IPO — with 71,663 shares worth $500,000.
Its first major increase was in the final quarter of 2019, when the holding jumped above 1 million shares for the first time, to 3.4 million shares worth $13 million.
The position fluctuated between less than 1 million and 4 million shares over the following two years.
By the end of 2021, Citadel held nearly 6 million shares worth $189 million — before slashing 85% of the stake in early 2022.
Citadel’s current accumulation run began in the third quarter of 2025, when it held 6.3 million shares — already a record at the time.
However, with Nio‘s stock down more than 90% from its 2021 high of $66.99, the position was worth just $48.3 million — a fraction of what a similar number of shares had been valued at three years earlier.
In its latest quarterly portfolio filing, Citadel also disclosed 9 million Call options in Nio — down 17.3% from the end of 2025 — and a decrease of 43.2% in Put options, to slightly over 5.2 million.
Citadel Portfolio
Citadel had a stake in 7,212 positions during the first quarter, with a value of $150 billion.
The asset manager doubled its shares in EV maker Rivian, totaling 2.2 million by the end of the quarter — worth $33.9 million then.
Citadel’s Tesla stake was also doubled to 2 million shares during the last quarter.
Since March 31, the Elon Musk-led company’s shares have been trading between a low of $337.24 on April 7 and a high of $453.40 last week.
The position was worth $777.8 million by the end of the first quarter and is valued at $845.5 million now.
The firm’s Lucid stake was trimmed by 12.7% to just 74,339 shares, valued at $708,000 on March.
As the EV maker’s stock continued to decline to new lows throughout the past two months, the position is now worth $417,000, following Lucid’s new all-time low on Tuesday.
Institutional Ownership
According to Nasdaq, Nio has 519 institutional owners with combined holdings of approximately 288 million shares.
CYVN Holdings remains the Chinese EV maker’s main backer with a stake of nearly 20%.
DE Shaw sold nearly 10 million shares between January and March, a 20% cut that brought its position to 38.3 million shares — currently valued at approximately $225 million.
The firm remains Nio‘s top institutional holder outside CYVN, despite the reduction.
BNP Paribas shed 8 million shares during the same period, ending March with 13.3 million — a 38.3% decrease.
Jane Street Group made the sharpest move among Nio‘s former top holders, slashing its stake by 71.9% to 5.5 million shares and falling well outside the top 10.
The selling was not uniform across institutions, however.
BlackRock moved in the opposite direction, nearly doubling its Nio position with a 92.2% increase to 10.73 million shares.
Bank of America similarly expanded its stake during the quarter — reaching a new high of 14.3 million shares.
Citadel now ranks as the EV maker’s eighth largest institutional shareholder.
Nio reports first-quarter financial results on Thursday, May 21.
