Nio‘s semiconductor subsidiary Shenji is actively pitching its jointly developed M97 autonomous driving chip to Leapmotor and Geely, according to an exclusive report by Chinese outlet 36Kr.
The chip unit of the Shanghai-headquartered EV maker is moving to convert billions of yuan in R&D spending into its first external revenue stream.
Nio launched its semiconductor unit in 2021 and has since developed two in-house chips: the Yangjian for LiDAR control and the Shenji NX9031 for autonomous driving computation. The latter completed tape-out in July 2024 and was first deployed on the flagship ET9 sedan in March 2025.
In November 2025, Nio had begun external supply of the NX9031 — the first deal of its kind for the EV maker.
Days later, Shenji established a joint venture with Axera and OmniVision in Chongqing with 100 million yuan in registered capital.
Nio‘s Founder and CEO William Li confirmed at the Q3 earnings call that the arrangement was “not an exclusive partnership.”
In January, Nio registered two chip subsidiaries in Hangzhou — its first chip presence outside Beijing, Shanghai, and Hefei — and signed a chip industrialisation partnership with Lontium Semiconductor.
Late last month, Shenji secured 2.257 billion yuan ($330 million) in its first external funding round at a valuation approaching 10 billion yuan.
The EV maker retains a controlling 62.7% stake.
Shenji’s Second Chip
Last week, Li disclosed that Shenji completed tape-out on a second chip — described as high-end but engineered for a broader client base.
Li characterised the new product as “a very competitive chip product” and said it has already achieved successful tape-out — an irreversible milestone in semiconductor development — and is now in preparations for mass production.
He said Nio is already in active discussions with external clients, including automotive companies, robotaxi operators, and firms working in embodied artificial intelligence.
The flagship NX9031 has been installed in more than 150,000 vehicles across the ET9, ES6, EC6, and ES8 models.
Its memory bandwidth of 546 gigabytes per second is roughly double that of Nvidia’s Thor-U, according to chip division head Zhang Danyu.
The chip is also expected to equip the upcoming ES9 flagship SUV, scheduled for a technology unveiling on April 9, with deliveries from June 1.
Separately, Shenji’s Shanghai research entity is developing a next-generation high-performance chip for Nio‘s own future products — distinct from the externally focused M97 and 9031e programmes.
Leapmotor as Catalyst
Leapmotor and other Chinese automakers have been exploring domestically produced high-computing-power ADAS chips as replacements for Nvidia and Qualcomm products, according to 36Kr.
A single Nvidia Orin-X chip costs approximately $300 to $500 in procurement while the Thor chip exceeds $1,000.
However, some automakers showed hesitation toward Horizon’s J6P because — until late last year — the chip had to be bundled with Horizon’s own algorithms, which would limit automakers’ control over their ADAS development.
Leapmotor delivered nearly 600,000 vehicles in 2025 and reported this week that it achieved a full-year profit exceeding 500 million yuan.
The company’s COO Xu Jun announced a 2026 sales target of 1.05 million units. Large-scale deployment of the M97 across Leapmotor‘s fleet would represent a significant revenue opportunity for both Shenji and Axera.
9031e Chip
Beyond the M97, Shenji and Axera are also planning a lower-end chip, codenamed 9031e, benchmarked against Horizon’s Journey J6M, which delivers 128 TOPS, according to 36Kr.
This chip could further expand Shenji’s external supply business into lower-cost vehicle segments.
Li has said each Shenji-equipped Nio vehicle saves approximately 10,000 yuan ($1,400) in component costs compared with using Nvidia hardware.
Nio reported late last month its first single-quarter profit — exceeding 1.2 billion yuan — after consecutive quarters of multi-billion yuan losses.
The chip business spin-off and licensing revenue contributed to that milestone.
