Ren Shaoqing makes robots, while NIO leaves behind an AI gateway.

Ren Shaoqing, head of NIO Intelligent Driving, now has a second identity.

Wallstreetcn has learned that on August 24th, NIO CEO William Li announced at an intelligent driving staff meeting that Ren Shaoqing has founded an independent company focusing on physical AI foundational models and embodied intelligence. NIO will make a strategic investment and collaborate with the new company.

Ren Shaoqing has not resigned. A source close to NIO said that Ren Shaoqing will continue to be fully responsible for NIO intelligent driving, with no change in position or responsibilities.

This is a rare arrangement. Ren Shaoqing becomes a founder of an independent company while still overseeing one of NIO's core technology businesses.

Ren Shaoqing joined NIO in 2020, driving its advanced intelligent driving from traditional modular solutions to end-to-end and world models, and participated in the mass production rollout of the Shenji NX9031 intelligent driving chip. NIO began world model R&D in 2023, and will start mass production and rollout in 2025. In June this year, the latest version covered over 700,000 users.

Both intelligent driving and embodied intelligence have to solve how machines perceive the environment, predict changes, and take action. Technologies such as world models and reinforcement learning can share research methods. But moving from cars to robots also requires supplementing with hardware, operational data, supply chain, and application scenarios.

A source close to NIO management told Wallstreetcn on August 25th that NIO has long focused on cutting-edge AI, balancing self-developed tech and open collaboration for industry layout. In recent years, NIO has continuously invested in key areas such as chips and operating systems, while strategically collaborating and coordinating with the industry to support innovative companies in embodied intelligence, algorithm models, intelligent hardware, new energy, and computing infrastructure.

This draws the boundary for NIO's involvement in robotics.

Chips, operating systems, and intelligent driving directly determine the vehicle experience, so NIO keeps these capabilities in-house. Robotics R&D cycles are long, product forms and revenue are not yet clear, so NIO chooses to participate via investment and collaboration, rather than starting a new business line requiring continual investment.

Surrounding robotics, NIO's related industry investment system has already been deployed in advance. According to public information from NIO Capital, since 2025 it has supported ZHUJI Power’s financing, led the Force Lingji A round, and in February this year led the Pre-B round of Linghou Robotics. These projects extend investment from robot body and motion control to embodied foundational models, vision, and joint parts, covering multiple aspects of embodied intelligence.

NIO's more explicit connection to robotics is the Shenji chip. William Li stated in May this year that both intelligent driving chips and embodied intelligence chips are edge inference chips; after Shenji’s independent development, it will not only serve cars, but also seek customers in robots, logistics, and other edge inference scenarios.

William Li had already laid out this direction before. In November 2025, during the Q3 earnings call, he said that robots have a future, but NIO will not build them itself, preferring to participate via investment and collaboration. At that time, he said, compared to entering the field directly, NIO cares more about "whose robots will use our chips."

For NIO, which is re-emphasizing profitability and return on investment, this arrangement solves a real dilemma: Robots may be a natural extension of intelligent vehicles, but before clarity on product and revenue, putting this inside the company would extend the investment horizon. By participating as a strategic investor, at least the whole-vehicle company does not need to bear all the investment from model research to robot mass production alone.

Now, Ren Shaoqing’s new company makes this path concrete: the startup can finance externally, hire talent, and seek applications from more customers; NIO retains its connection to next-generation physical AI via equity and technology collaboration.

This also aligns with NIO's recent business practice. In February this year, the Shenji intelligent driving chip business brought in 2.257 billion yuan in external funding, with NIO retaining 62.7% controlling stake and consolidating its financial statements.

NIO gradually enables some technology-intensive businesses to obtain independent financing and valuations, no longer relying solely on whole-vehicle business investment.

Valuation comes quickly, but business develops much slower. For the new company to step out from NIO, someone must pay for its services. After Ren Shaoqing’s startup venture, whether NIO's intelligent driving R&D remains undiluted, and whether NIO’s previous layouts can connect with it, ultimately determines whether this AI entry point has actual value.

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