Local media outlet LatePost reported on Wednesday that Chinese EV maker Nio is looking to bring in strategic investors for its in-house chip business.
The EV maker created on Tuesday a separate legal entity named Anhui Shenji Technology Co., Ltd. for its chip R&D project, which was a business unit under Nio until now.
Nio aims to sell a minority stake to strategic investors but will keep control of the new entity.
Approached by LatePost, the company denied the report, stating that it is “speculative information.”
According to data shared by the platform Tianyancha, the business scope of the new subsidiary includes chip design and sales and has a registered capital of 10 million yuan ($1.4 million).
Nio‘s chip development began in 2021.
To date, the Shanghai-based company has launched two in-house developed chips: the Yangjian chip for LiDAR control, and the intelligent driving chip Shenji NX9031.
The Shenji chip, which was unveiled in late 2023, is already present in models like the ET9 sedan and the updated versions of the ES6 and EC6 SUVs.
Last month, Software Senior Manager Zhang Danyu, responsible for the design of the Shenji chip, said that it took two years to design and another one for performance testing.
It can process data from up to 25 HD cameras at the same time with a delay of less than 5 milliseconds, allowing vehicles to react faster in difficult conditions like rain or driving at night.
According to Zhang, the chip beats Nvidia Thor intelligent driving chips in terms of time-to-market.
Its computing power is roughly four times that of Nvidia Orin-X, Zhang stated.
The Shenji chip represents Nio‘s shift to using chips developed in-house, after previously relying on Nvidia chips in its vehicles.
Founder and CEO William Li has recently said the company spent over $300 million on Nvidia Orin-X chips last year, a cost that could be lowered by using its own chips. That way, the brand can save about 10,000 yuan ($1,400) per vehicle.
