Geely may use an autonomous-driving chip developed out of Nio’s semiconductor unit, Chinese outlet 36Kr reported on Wednesday, in what would be the first sign of a major automaker taking the part into its supply chain.
The chip, the M97, was jointly developed by Nio’s chip subsidiary Anhui Shenji and AXera Semiconductor, and Geely’s initial concept is a dual-M97 configuration for an L3 system, the report said.
The disclosure marks a more concrete sign of potential cooperation than in March, when the same outlet reported that Shenji and its partner AXera Semiconductor — which jointly developed the chip — were pitching the M97 to automakers including Geely and Leapmotor.
It remains unclear whether the two companies have signed a nomination or supply agreement.
Potential models, procurement volumes or mass-production timelines have also not been disclosed.
Leapmotor and Chery have also shown interest in the chip, according to 36Kr, though the progress of those discussions was not disclosed.
M97 Specifications
The M97 delivers more than 700 TOPS of computing power, positioning it against Horizon Robotics’ Journey 6P at 560 TOPS.
The M97 delivers more than 700 TOPS of AI computing power, which positions it above Horizon Robotics’ 560-TOPS Journey 6P and into the high-end ADAS chip segment.
Compared to Nvidia’s Drive chips, it places above the Drive Orin’s 250 to 400 TOPS, but below the latest DRIVE Thor, which offers more than 1,000 INT8 TOPS.
AXera has previously said the chip was scheduled for release in the third quarter.
Nio’s founder and CEO William Li described the chip earlier this year as high-end, but engineered for a broader client base than the flagship Shenji NX9031.
Chinese automakers are seeking more competitively priced domestic high-compute chips while retaining control over their driver-assistance algorithms, creating a potential market opening for the M97.
A single Nvidia Orin-X chip costs approximately $300 to $500 in procurement, while the newer Thor chip exceeds $1,000.
Hefei Gov. Contract
In the same report, 36Kr noted that Shenji has been selected for an edge-inference project commissioned by the Hefei municipal government.
The outlet did not specify which chip variant would be used or the project’s value.
The contract marks the first publicly reported government deal for Shenji’s silicon outside the automotive sector.
The win extends Shenji’s reach beyond vehicles and aligns with the unit’s stated ambition — declared at the 2026 World AI Conference in July — to supply chips across autonomous driving, embodied intelligence and AI agent inference.
Li wrote at the time that Shenji was the only company in China shipping chips across all three general-AI domains.
Hefei has been Nio’s deepest financial anchor since the city’s 7 billion yuan ($1 billion) municipal rescue pulled the company back from near-collapse in 2020.
Anhui state-owned enterprises injected a further 4 billion yuan ($595 million) in early 2025, and a Hefei local industry fund participated in Shenji’s 2.257 billion yuan ($336 million) first external funding round disclosed in late February.
The round valued the unit at 8.27 billion yuan ($1.2 billion).
Licensing Revenue
Supplying chip technology to external customers through the AXera joint venture has already generated several hundred million yuan in technology licensing fees for Nio, 36Kr reported, citing an industry insider close to AXera.
Returns could rise further if chip shipments reach significant volume.
The revenue represents the first material payback on a multi-year investment Li once estimated as equivalent to building 1,000 battery-swap stations.
Nio spent more than $300 million on Nvidia Orin-X chips in 2024 alone, underscoring the cost burden the in-house programme was designed to reduce.
Industry experts cited by 36Kr report estimate automakers selling fewer than 2 million vehicles annually cannot make the economics of proprietary chip development work on captive demand alone.
Nio delivered roughly 400,000 vehicles across its three brands last year, well below that threshold.
Chip Unit’s Buildout
A Nio subsidiary retains a controlling 62.7% stake in Shenji following the February funding round, with external investors holding 27.3% and an employee share-incentive plan accounting for 10%.
Since then Nio has accelerated the unit’s corporate buildout.
The company registered two chip subsidiaries in Hangzhou in January, allied with GigaDevice on automotive-grade memory and microcontrollers in June, and registered two further wholly owned subsidiaries in Anhui carrying integrated-circuit manufacturing in their business scope.
Shenji’s chip family has expanded rapidly.
Beyond the flagship NX9031 — which has surpassed 300,000 cumulative shipments across the Nio and Onvo line-ups — the portfolio now includes the NX9031U and NX9031C variants, a lower-end 9031e chip, the Yangjian LiDAR control chip and the jointly developed M97.
A next-generation high-performance chip for Nio’s own future vehicles is also under development at Shenji’s Shanghai research entity.
Profitability Context
The chip programme’s external revenue sits within a broader push by Nio to monetize in-house technology.
Nio reported on Tuesday a non-GAAP profit of 26.1 million yuan ($3.9 million) for its second quarter, its third consecutive quarter of adjusted profitability since Q4 2025.
The company accumulated roughly 130 billion yuan ($19.3 billion) in cumulative losses over more than a decade before reaching profitability.
Turning the chip unit from a cost centre into a revenue contributor remains central to whether that profitability holds.
