NIO's In-House "Shenji NX9031" Chip Rolls Out Across Multiple Models, Cutting Per-Vehicle Costs by ~$1,400 and Opening to External Licensing

In 2024, NIO officially launched its first self-developed automotive-grade 5nm high-performance intelligent driving chip, the "Shenji NX9031." The chip features over 50 billion transistors and employs a 32-core big.LITTLE CPU architecture. It integrates a high-dynamic-range, high-performance ISP with image processing latency under 5 milliseconds, supports LPDDR5x memory at speeds up to 8533 Mbps, delivers a memory bandwidth of 546 GB/s, and offers a total computing power of 1000 TOPS—equivalent to the combined performance of four NVIDIA Orin-X chips (each rated at 254 TOPS). On June 13, 2026, at the China Automotive Chongqing Forum, Ma Lin, Vice President of NIO, announced that the Shenji NX9031 chip has been officially deployed in NIO models including the ET9, ES9, ES8, and the 2026 ONVO L90, and is now being rolled out across the ONVO brand lineup. Compared to the previous solution requiring four NVIDIA Orin chips per vehicle, the new approach reduces per-vehicle costs by approximately RMB 10,000. NIO previously spent USD 300 million annually on NVIDIA chips. Li Bin, the company’s founder, had pointed out that maintaining external procurement would create significant cost pressure as annual sales volumes grow by 40%–50%. Although in-house chip development requires substantial upfront investment, it offers greater long-term cost advantages. Additionally, NIO began licensing the chip externally by the end of 2025, marking its first commercial semiconductor technology export since initiating chip development in 2021.