NIO Smart Driving Head Ren Shaoqing Founds Embodied AI Startup with NIO Backing
Ren Shaoqing, the head of smart driving at NIO, has founded an independent startup focused on physical AI foundation models and embodied AI. NIO will strategically invest in the new company and collaborate with it, while Ren will continue to lead NIO's smart driving business. As a highly influential AI researcher and co-author of ResNet, Ren's new venture underscores the accelerating industry trend of applying autonomous driving expertise to broader embodied AI and robotics. The strategic investment allows NIO to secure early access to physical AI technologies while retaining its top smart driving talent. The newly registered startup has already reached a unicorn-level valuation, though no organizational restructuring within NIO's smart driving division was announced. In addition to his roles at NIO and the startup, Ren is set to join the University of Science and Technology of China as a chair professor in September 2025.
## BACKGROUND
Embodied AI refers to artificial intelligence systems embedded in physical forms, such as robots or autonomous vehicles, that perceive and interact with the physical world. Physical AI relies on world models, which act as digital twins of the environment, to train AI policies safely in digital simulations before deploying them to physical hardware.