On August 25, NIO Inc. declined 5.18% in regular trading, trading at $4.40 per share, with turnover of $115 million.

On the news front, NIO CEO William Li announced at an internal autonomous driving team meeting that Ren Shaoqing, the company's head of intelligent driving, has founded an independent company focused on physical AI foundation models and embodied intelligence. NIO will serve as a strategic investor and collaborate with the new entity. Although NIO officially stated that Ren will continue in his role as head of autonomous driving, the new venture has already reached unicorn-level valuation, raising market concerns over potential distraction and the continuity of NIO's smart driving R&D efforts.

Notably, Ren joined NIO in 2020 as chief expert and assistant vice president, overseeing all autonomous driving development. His move follows similar transitions by smart driving leaders at XPeng and Li Auto into the embodied robotics space. Within the Automobile Manufacturers sector, the broader group traded lower, with XPeng Inc. down 8.33%, Ford down 3.30%, Tesla down 1.69%, General Motors down 1.25%, and Rivian down 1.03%.

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