NIO's cumulative in-house chip production has surpassed 550,000 units. William Li announced the milestone at a Shanghai semiconductor industry summit, breaking the total into two product lines: the Yangjian LiDAR chip (over 400,000 units) and the Shenji NX9031 smart driving chip (exceeding 150,000 units).
The Yangjian chip launched in September 2023 with production starting in April 2024. It delivers "hundreds of yuan per vehicle" in cost savings over third-party alternatives while matching or exceeding performance. The NX9031 is a 5nm smart driving processor unveiled in December 2023 and deployed across NIO's fleet since March 2025. All NIO-branded models now run on in-house silicon rather than Nvidia chips.
The 2027 Target
NIO is targeting 35-40% domestically sourced automotive semiconductors by 2027, with chip selections standardized to no more than 400 specifications across its fleet. Reducing chip variety simplifies procurement, testing, and software development across the vehicle lineup.
Shenji's Valuation
The chip subsidiary Shenji completed its first funding round in February 2026, raising over 2.2 billion yuan ($320 million) at a valuation approaching 10 billion yuan. The unit is actively pitching chips to external automakers including Leapmotor and Geely, positioning NIO as both a vehicle manufacturer and a semiconductor supplier.
550,000 chips across two product lines in roughly two years of production represents meaningful scale for an automotive startup's semiconductor division.
