NIO (蔚来) says in‑house chips have already cut costs after $300M annual NVIDIA bill

What Li Bin said

It has been reported that NIO (蔚来) founder, chairman and CEO Li Bin told attendees at the Intelligent EV Development Forum that the company’s move to self‑develop driving chips has already “saved the company a lot of money” when examined through internal management accounts. How big was the prior bill? Reportedly, NIO bought roughly $300 million a year of NVIDIA (英伟达) chips at its peak — about ¥20.53 billion at current exchange rates.

The chips and the math

Li argued the math is straightforward: heavy R&D upfront can be paid back by avoiding large annual procurement outlays, especially given NIO’s reported 40–50% annual vehicle growth at times. It has been reported that NIO’s first car‑grade 5nm high‑performance drive chip, the “神玑 NX9031,” taped out in mid‑2024; the chip is described as having more than 50 billion transistors, a 32‑core CPU architecture, LPDDR5x 8533Mbps RAM, high‑dynamic‑range ISP capability, 6.5 GPixel/s pixel processing and sub‑5ms latency. Li also said a second, more customer‑facing advanced chip has taped out and is in volume ramping.

Strategic and geopolitical context

The shift matters beyond unit economics. Domestic chip development reduces exposure to supply‑chain disruption and export controls that have reshaped the semiconductor landscape between the U.S. and China. Reportedly, NIO sees self‑design as “using R&D to buy lower costs” — a bet many Chinese tech and auto firms are making as Beijing pushes for greater semiconductor self‑reliance. Will other EV makers follow NIO’s path en masse? That will depend on whether initial investments and foundry access keep paying off as volumes scale.