During an internal meeting focused on intelligent driving, NIO's CEO, William Li, disclosed that Ren Shaoqing, the head of NIO's intelligent driving division, has established an independent company dedicated to developing foundational models for physical AI and embodied AI. NIO intends to make a strategic investment in this new venture and collaborate closely with it. Meanwhile, Ren will retain his position as the leader of NIO's intelligent driving operations. At present, the newly founded company has completed its registration process and has already achieved a valuation on par with that of a unicorn startup. Ren Shaoqing, born in 1988, obtained a joint doctoral degree from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) and Microsoft Research Asia in 2016. In 2018, he co-founded Momenta, an autonomous driving company. He joined NIO in August 2020, serving as the Chief Expert and Vice President of Autonomous Driving R&D. In September 2025, Ren took on roles as a Chair Professor, Doctoral Supervisor, and Director of the Institute of General Artificial Intelligence at USTC, with his research interests encompassing artificial intelligence and embodied AI.