Nio has established a new wholly-owned subsidiary in Anhui province, according to corporate filings on the Qichacha corporate registry platform.
The new unit of the Shanghai-headquartered EV maker has a business scope covering integrated circuit chip manufacturing, chip design, automotive parts R&D, and AI software development.
Named Jieshou Nio New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. is indirectly wholly owned by Nio Holding Co., Ltd.
The company is registered in Jieshou, a county-level city in Anhui province under the jurisdiction of Fuyang — Nio‘s latest expansion of its chip-related operations within the province.
In Hefei — the provincial capital of Anhui also located in the Anhui province — Nio has three EV plants established.
Over the years, the company founded and led by William Li has been creating distinct, geographically dispersed operational entities for each of its chip, battery, and sub-brand business lines.
The move allows Nio to raise external capital at the subsidiary level while retaining consolidation control at the group level.
First Manufacturing Oriented
The new entity’s business scope is the first one to include integrated circuit chip manufacturing.
Nio‘s in-house chip operations to date — centered on the Shenji NX9031 autonomous-driving chip deployed in the main brand’s lineup — have been design-focused, with physical fabrication contracted to foundries including TSMC.
A registered business scope that formally includes “chip and product manufacturing” is the first Nio entity to carry that classification, raising questions about whether the Jieshou subsidiary is positioning for in-house fabrication, packaging, and assembly capabilities in the future.
The scope also covers integrated circuit chip design and services, automotive parts research and development, and artificial intelligence application software development — a combination that maps closely to the Shenji portfolio.
The Anhui Pattern
Anhui province has been the group’s deepest operational and financial anchor, dating back to Hefei’s 7 billion yuan municipal rescue that saved the company from near-collapse during 2020.
In March 2025, the company raised an additional 4 billion yuan ($587 million) from two Anhui state-owned enterprises.
Anhui Shenji Technology — the mainland operating entity behind Nio‘s chip business — is itself registered in the province.
Hefei Construction Investment Holding and Hefei Economic and Technological Development Zone Investment Promotion were among the new state-owned investors in Mirattery’s Series C3 round earlier this year.
Hefei’s local industry fund also participated in Shenji’s 2.257 billion yuan ($310 million) first external funding round disclosed on February 26.
Shenji Context
Nio launched its semiconductor unit in 2021 and has developed two in-house chips since: Yangjian, a LiDAR control chip, and the Shenji NX9031 autonomous-driving computation chip.
The NX9031 was unveiled in late 2023, completed tape-out in July 2024, and debuted on the ET9 flagship sedan in March 2025.
Nio describes the NX9031 as the world’s first automotive-grade 5-nanometre intelligent driving chip.
The chip investment followed years of heavy external dependency — Nio spent over $300 million on Nvidia Orin-X chips in 2024 alone.
Anhui Shenji Technology — the mainland operating entity behind Nio‘s chip business, which for US SEC filings is named GeniTech Co Ltd — was spun out from an internal business unit into a separate subsidiary in mid-2025.
The February 26 external funding round disclosed a capital structure in which a Nio subsidiary retained 62.7% ownership of Shenji, external investors took 27.3% collectively, and 10% was reserved for an employee share incentive plan.
The filing did not disclose investors or post-money valuation, but LatePost reported participants include the Hefei local industry fund, Nio Capital, IDG, and an unnamed listed semiconductor company, with a post-investment valuation approaching 10 billion yuan ($1.4 billion).
Leiphone reported that subsequent financing rounds have already commenced.
CEO William Li disclosed on the Q3 2025 earnings call in November that Shenji is licensing NX9031 to automotive and robotics customers — the first commercialisation of the chip technology.
The same month, Anhui Shenji formed a joint venture in Chongqing, Chuangyuan Zhihang Technology, with AXera Semiconductor — a supplier to Geely, Leapmotor, Ford, and GAC-Toyota — and OmniVision Technologies, with AXera holding 36.4% as the largest shareholder.
A source close to AXera described the collaboration to 36Kr as “somewhat complex — neither buying IP nor directly purchasing the original chip. It can be understood as both sides jointly creating a new chip and then doing a fresh tape-out.”
The Shenji-AXera arrangement generated “several hundred million yuan” in technology licensing fees for Nio, according to 36Kr — the first material revenue from the company’s multi-year investment in chip design. Leapmotor reportedly played a catalytic role in creating demand.
In January, Shenji registered two subsidiaries in Hangzhou’s Binjiang District, both headed by Nio hardware vice president Bai Jian — marking the unit’s first chip presence outside Beijing, Shanghai, and Hefei.
A second Shenji chip — reportedly called M97 — has completed tape-out and is being pitched to Leapmotor and Geely, per 36Kr. It is described as high-end advanced-process but engineered for a broader client base than the NX9031.
Li has said the NX9031 R&D cost was equivalent to building 1,000 battery swap stations.
Timing
The new Jieshou subsidiary filing surfaced on the same day CATL holds its 2026 Super Tech Day in Beijing, expected to unveil sodium-ion, condensed-state, and fast-charging battery products, and three days before the opening of the 2026 Beijing Auto Show on April 24.
CATL is Nio‘s primary battery supplier and the two companies signed a five-year strategic cooperation agreement in Hefei earlier this year.
The Onvo sub-brand also launches the refreshed 2026 L90 at a separate event at 19:30 Beijing time on Tuesday, introducing LiDAR and the Shenji NX9031 chip to the family-oriented sub-brand for the first time.
Subsidiary Footprint Growing
The Jieshou filing brings Nio‘s recent subsidiary-registration cadence to five new entities in less than six months.
The company registered Weineng (Wuhan) Battery Technology in October 2025, Weineng (Chengmai) Battery Technology in October 2025, two Hangzhou Shenji units in January 2026, and Weilai Battery Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. on February 26, 2026.
