According to Late Auto, on August 24, NIO CEO Li Bin announced at an all-hands meeting for the intelligent driving team that Ren Shaoqing, head of intelligent driving, had founded an independent company focused on physical AI foundation models and embodied intelligence. NIO will make a strategic investment in the company and cooperate with it. An informed source said, "The meeting was very brief and did not mention any organizational changes."
A person who attended the all-hands meeting said that Li Bin and Ren Shaoqing clearly stated at the meeting that Ren Shaoqing would continue to lead NIO's intelligent driving business. The report said that the new company founded by Ren Shaoqing had completed registration and reached a unicorn-level valuation.
Ren Shaoqing was born in 1988 and received his PhD from the University of Science and Technology of China and Microsoft Research Asia in 2016. In 2018, Ren Shaoqing participated in founding Momenta, where he served as a partner and R&D director. He joined NIO in August 2020 and later served as NIO's chief expert and vice president of autonomous driving R&D.
IT Home's review of public information found that, in addition to his role at NIO, Ren Shaoqing joined the University of Science and Technology of China in September 2025 as a chair professor, doctoral advisor, and director of the Institute of General Artificial Intelligence. His research areas include artificial intelligence, world models, embodied intelligence, deep learning, and AI for Science.