NIO in Discussions With Leapmotor & Geely for Chip Supply

NIO Inc.’s NIO semiconductor arm, Shenji, is marketing its jointly developed M97 autonomous driving chip to automakers Leapmotor and Geely, per the Chinese media outlet 36Kr. The move reflects NIO’s effort to turn its substantial R&D investments into external revenues.

Established in 2021, NIO’s chip division has developed two proprietary chips, Yangjian for LiDAR control and the Shenji NX9031 for autonomous driving, per EV news blog. The NX9031 completed tape-out in July 2024 and was first introduced in the ET9 sedan in March 2025. By November 2025, NIO had begun supplying the chip externally, marking its first such deal.

Shortly after, Shenji formed a joint venture in Chongqing with Axera and OmniVision, backed by 100 million yuan in registered capital. In January, NIO expanded its semiconductor footprint by setting up two subsidiaries in Hangzhou and partnering with Lontium Semiconductor to advance chip industrialization.

Last month, Shenji raised 2.257 billion yuan in its first external funding round, valuing the unit at nearly 10 billion yuan, with NIO retaining a 62.7% controlling stake. The company also recently completed tape-out of a second high-end chip designed for a wider customer base and is now preparing it for mass production.

NIO is actively engaging potential clients, including automakers, robotaxi companies and firms focused on embodied AI. Its flagship NX9031 chip has already been deployed in more than 150,000 vehicles across models, such as the ET9, ES6, EC6 and ES8.

Leapmotor, along with other Chinese automakers, has been investigating the use of domestically developed high-performance ADAS chips as alternatives to products from NVIDIA Corporation NVDA and Qualcomm, per 36Kr.

Per chip division head Zhang Danyu, the chip offers a memory bandwidth of 546 GB/s, about twice that of NVIDIA’s Thor-U. A Shenji-equipped NIO vehicle can reduce per-vehicle component costs by roughly 10,000 yuan compared to NVIDIA-based systems. The chip is also expected to power the upcoming ES9 SUV, set for a technology debut on April 9, with deliveries starting June 1.

Meanwhile, Shenji’s Shanghai research team is developing a next-generation high-performance chip tailored for NIO’s internal use, separate from its externally focused programs like M97 and 9031e.

NIO reported a profit exceeding 1.2 billion yuan in the fourth quarter of 2025, its first profitable quarter after multiple periods of heavy losses. This turnaround follows cost-control measures and restructuring efforts, with the chip division, previously one of the company’s most capital-intensive segments, contributing to the improvement.

NIO’s Zacks Rank & Key Picks

NIO carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) at present.

Some better-ranked stocks in the auto space are RENAULT RNLSY and Modine Manufacturing MOD, each sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for RNLSY’s 2026 sales and earnings implies year-over-year growth of 14.4% and 176.3%, respectively. The EPS estimates for 2026 and 2027 have improved 34 cents and 18 cents, respectively, in the past 30 days.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for MOD’s fiscal 2026 sales and earnings implies year-over-year growth of 21.3% and 19%, respectively. The EPS estimate for fiscal 2026 and fiscal 2027 has improved a penny and 4 cents, respectively, in the past 30 days.

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