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
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.
