At the High-Level Forum on Intelligent Electric Vehicle Development (2026), NIO Inc. Founder, Chairman, and CEO William Li spoke with the media. When discussing the company's self-developed autonomous driving chips, Li stated that from the perspective of NIO's internal management reports, the initiative has already saved the company a substantial amount of money. In previous years, NIO relied exclusively on NVIDIA chips, with annual purchases peaking at $300 million. While the research and development investment for in-house chips is significant, it is certainly less than this expenditure. Li noted that if NIO were still procuring chips externally, the cost would represent a major expense given the company's annual sales growth of 40% to 50%.
He explained that, from this viewpoint, developing chips in-house is a strategy of trading R&D investment for cost reduction. In terms of gross margin contribution from the R&D efforts, it is undoubtedly cost-effective. Although the initial investment phase required substantial capital, the current annual volume of several hundred thousand units makes the venture economically viable.
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