Reward Li Bin with 82.4 billion yuan, but the condition is that the market value exceeds that of Xiaomi and the net profit exceeds 41.2 billion yuan.

After 11 years of operation and over 100 billion yuan in losses, NIO has finally turned a profit!

On March 10th, NIO released its first quarterly profit report, with an operating profit of 1.25 billion yuan in the fourth quarter of last year. As soon as the news came out, its US stocks soared by over 15%.

It's worth noting that the financial report also mentioned an equity incentive plan. Founder, Chairman, and CEO Li Bin will be awarded stock incentives worth up to 82.4 billion yuan.

This money isn't given for free. To pocket it, Li Bin has to accomplish two major tasks with NIO: surpass Xiaomi in market value and achieve a net profit of over 41.2 billion yuan.

NIO is ambitious and aims for a market value of 100 billion US dollars

According to the official announcement, this 2026 equity incentive plan will grant Li Bin 248 million Class A common shares, accounting for 10% of NIO's total outstanding shares as of the end of February.

Based on the maximum unlocking condition corresponding to a market value of 120 billion US dollars, this equity is worth 12 billion US dollars, approximately 82.4 billion yuan.

These 248 million shares are equally divided into 10 installments, with 24.84 million shares per installment. They can only be unlocked upon achieving the hard performance targets, and the validity period is 12 years.

Among them, the market value track accounts for 5 levels. NIO's US stock market value is required to cross the thresholds of 30 billion, 50 billion, 80 billion, 100 billion, and 120 billion US dollars in sequence. Each time a threshold is crossed, 1/10 of the shares will be unlocked.

The profit track accounts for the other 5 levels. The company is required to achieve net profits of 1.5 billion, 2.5 billion, 4 billion, 5 billion, and 6 billion US dollars in sequence. Each time a target is completed, another 1/10 of the shares will be unlocked.

How difficult is this goal? We can find out by comparing the current situation.

After NIO's US stocks soared by 15.38% after the release of the financial report, its market value reached 14.15 billion US dollars. For Li Bin to get the first - level market value reward, he first needs to double the market value.

To reach the highest target of 120 billion US dollars, it needs to be multiplied by 8.5 on the current basis - and Xiaomi's current market value is only 112 billion US dollars.

The difficulty on the profit side is even greater.

In the whole year of 2025, NIO still had a net loss of 14.94 billion yuan, while the first - level profit target of 1.5 billion US dollars is approximately 10.3 billion yuan.

The highest - level target of 6 billion US dollars is approximately 41.2 billion yuan, directly comparable to the profit level of global first - tier car companies.

Moreover, this plan also has two locking clauses.

One is the hard constraint on employment. When each installment of shares is unlocked, Li Bin must still hold a core position at NIO. Once he leaves, all un - unlocked shares will be directly invalidated.

The other is the ultra - long restricted selling period. Even if the shares are successfully unlocked, not a single share can be sold or transferred within the next 5 years, completely eliminating the possibility of short - term cash - out and tying personal gains completely to the long - term value of the company.

This kind of equity incentive plan is not uncommon in the new energy field.

Previously, XPeng Motors' 14.2 billion Hong Kong dollars incentive plan for He Xiaopeng was the same kind of deep - binding plan, with three - level targets, and the highest target was to reach a market value of 1.4 trillion Hong Kong dollars.

Back then, Tesla's option plan for Elon Musk was even more classic. With a zero base salary, he could only unlock equity worth 56 billion US dollars through 12 levels of step - by - step performance targets. Musk completed all the targets in just 5 years and led Tesla to the top of the global auto industry.

First quarterly profit in 11 years of operation

NIO's bold setting of such an aggressive goal is backed by its strongest report card in 11 years of operation.

NIO's financial reports for the fourth quarter and the whole year of 2025 show that the total revenue in the fourth quarter reached 34.65 billion yuan, a year - on - year surge of 75.9%.

The single - quarter vehicle delivery volume reached 124,800 units, a year - on - year increase of 71.7% and a quarter - on - quarter increase of 43.3%. The single - quarter delivery volumes of NIO, LeDao, and Firefly, the three major brands, all hit record highs, completely breaking the previous sales ceiling of a single brand.

The more core change is the leap - forward improvement in profitability.

In the fourth quarter, NIO's vehicle gross profit margin reached 18.1%, a year - on - year increase of 5 percentage points. The single - quarter gross profit reached 6.074 billion yuan, a year - on - year surge of 163.1%, directly covering all expenses and finally achieving a profit.

Looking at the whole year, NIO's total revenue in 2025 increased by 33.1% year - on - year, the vehicle delivery volume increased by 46.9% year - on - year, and the annual net loss was significantly narrowed by 33.3% year - on - year. It is obvious that the company has shifted from scale expansion to profit realization.

The management even directly stated that NIO will achieve a profit on a Non - GAAP basis in the whole year of 2026.

Conclusion

Since the day NIO was founded, controversies have never stopped.

From the early doubts about the money - burning of new car - making forces, to the disputes between the battery - swapping route and the ultra - fast charging route, from the sales pressure under the industry price war, to the pains of multi - brand transformation, Li Bin was once called "the most miserable person", and NIO was also written off countless times as "unable to survive the next quarter".

But this company has managed to make it through step by step, achieving a leap from crazy investment to single - quarter profit.

Whether Li Bin can finally complete this epic bet and pocket the 82.4 billion yuan incentive ultimately depends on whether NIO can transform its technological advantages into continuous product strength and its scale advantages into stable profitability.

Do you think Li Bin can complete the incentive plan?

This article is from the WeChat official account "Tech Daily Push" (ID: apptoday), author: Tech Daily Push, published by 36Kr with authorization.