At an internal autonomous-driving all-hands, NIO CEO Li Bin said Ren Shaoqing, head of NIO’s autonomous-driving unit, has founded an independent company focused on physics-based AI foundation models and embodied intelligence. NIO will make a strategi

2026-08-24

At an internal autonomous-driving all-hands, NIO CEO Li Bin said Ren Shaoqing, head of NIO’s autonomous-driving unit, has founded an independent company focused on physics-based AI foundation models and embodied intelligence. NIO will make a strategic investment and cooperate with the new firm. Li and Ren said Ren will continue to lead NIO’s autonomous-driving business. The new The company has completed registration and is reportedly valued at unicorn scale. How Ren allocates time between NIO and the new company is a potential governance and operational question for investors.