Li Auto Starts to Sell Technologies: Maher Chips, Silicon Carbide Products and Range Extenders Will Be Supplied Externally | 36Kr Exclusive

By | Xu Caiyu

Editors | Li Qin, Yang Xuan

Li Auto has started to open up external cooperation for a number of its self-developed technologies to explore more revenue sources.

After sorting out information obtained from multiple industry insiders by 36Kr, Li Auto has launched multiple core technology external supply plans since the beginning of this year. Along with business spin-offs, some of its businesses also plan to introduce external capital.

Typical businesses that have launched external supply include the self-developed Maher chips, Sike Semiconductor (the silicon carbide module company) and range extenders. At present, Maher chips, silicon carbide modules and other businesses have established independent corporate entities to seek more external customers, and Sike Semiconductor is also preparing to introduce more external capital.

As for other power technologies, such as the range extender system, Li Auto has also released signals to accept external customers. However, there is no plan for self-developed batteries. Industry insiders said, "Batteries have a very high degree of customization, which makes external supply extremely difficult."

There have been many signals for the independence and external supply of the self-developed Maher chip business. In July this year, Li Auto registered a new wholly-owned subsidiary for its chip business: Xinchuang Zhihe (Shanghai) Technology Co., Ltd.

According to 36Kr's understanding, Li Auto's senior management has also approved the spin-off of the chip business, and business expansion and other related actions are being carried out simultaneously. Sources revealed that several embodied intelligence companies have negotiated with Li Auto's senior management, "the latter explicitly promoted the Maher chips", and whether these embodied companies will finally use Maher chips may depend on the difficulty of algorithm migration.

Maher M100 is Li Auto's first mass-produced assisted driving chip, with a single-chip computing power of 1280 TOPS and a memory bandwidth of 273GB/s. Li Auto has publicly stated that the actual available computing power of Maher M100 is 3 times that of NVIDIA Thor-U.

Since the second quarter of this year, the Maher M100 chip has been installed on new models including the new L9, L8, MEGA and the new i9. An insider from Li Auto revealed that as the first self-developed chip of the company, the mass production of Maher has gone very smoothly, and the company has reserved many production lines in chip fabs.

Earlier than the external supply of Maher chips, Li Auto's silicon carbide company Sike Semiconductor began independent operation at the beginning of this year, operating on a self-financing basis, and the company is also actively seeking external customers from multiple sources.

Spin off self-developed technologies for external supply is not rare in the automotive industry. It is a common practice to reduce the pressure of capital investment while exploring more market space and development opportunities.

This time, however, it happened to Li Auto, which has always adopted a more prudent financial strategy.

Under Gross Margin Pressure, Li Auto Also Needs To Seek Flexible Cash Flow

Li Auto does not lack cash on its books. As of the end of the second quarter of 2026, its cash reserves still reached 87.5 billion yuan, ranking first among Chinese new EV makers. But sufficient cash does not mean no pressure. Li Auto is currently facing three cash-consuming challenges: waiting for sales to pick up, gross margin restoration, and continuous large-scale R&D investment.

In 2026, Li Auto delivered a total of 261,600 vehicles from January to August, a slight year-on-year decrease of 0.6%. It was not until after August, with the successive launches of L6, the new MEGA, i8 and i9, that sales began to gradually rebound.

Since 2023, Li Auto has always been the most profitable new EV brand in China. However, in the first half of 2026, as the product line entered the replacement period, the company recorded a net loss of 3.994 billion yuan, compared with a net profit of 1.743 billion yuan in the same period last year. The gross margin also dropped from 19.4% to 9.4%, which is still far from the 15%-20% healthy level mentioned by Li Xiang.

At a time when both sales and profits are under pressure, Li Auto is still increasing its investment to ensure long-term competitiveness. In the second quarter of 2026, Li Auto has invested R&D expenses of around 3 billion yuan for 6 consecutive quarters, while its quarterly operating cash flow has just turned positive. This is probably the direct driving force for Li Auto to start seeking external funds.

NIO has actually taken the same path before.

In 2024, NIO's net loss reached 22.4 billion yuan, hitting a historical peak. In the same year, NIO began to open its battery swapping network to third-party automakers and energy companies. In 2025, NIO spun off its self-developed chip business into an independent subsidiary, Anhui Shenji Technology. Li Bin publicly stated that he "is willing to open up the technology to the whole industry". After that, Shenji frequently contacted automakers and robotics companies, and established a joint venture with Axera. It completed the first round of financing of 2.257 billion yuan in February 2026, with a post-investment valuation of around 10 billion yuan.

Not only has NIO's chip spin-off progressed smoothly, according to 36Kr, the chip company that once fell into operational trough has also successively obtained multiple rounds of financing amid the embodied intelligence boom, with its valuation rising rapidly.

The Maher chip developed by Li Auto adopts a data flow architecture that is more suitable for AI requirements, so it naturally wants to seize new opportunities in the booming embodied intelligence trend.

Is There A Market For Li Auto's Technology Sales?

The range extender is a core component that Li Auto invested in self-development at a relatively early stage. By 2026, Li Auto has launched the third-generation range extender, which is fully self-developed and self-manufactured.

According to public information, Li Auto's latest generation range extender system (the third-generation self-developed range extender platform) achieves a low fuel consumption of 6.3 liters per 100 kilometers, and adopts a new generation of self-developed and self-manufactured motor with a power generation efficiency of 94.8%, and realizes a 3-year maintenance cycle.

Industry insiders analyzed to 36Kr that the external supply of range extenders may be due to the large production capacity planned in the early stage, and external supply is conducive to diluting manufacturing costs. At present, traditional luxury brands that are seeking transformation in the Chinese market are likely to be Li Auto's target customer groups.

Silicon carbide semiconductors are also core technologies that Li Auto has long invested in self-development. In 2022, Li Auto established a joint venture Sike Semiconductor together with Hunan Sanan Semiconductor. In terms of labor division, Li Auto takes charge of module design and vehicle adaptation, Sanan provides SiC chips and substrates, and the Sike Semiconductor factory located in Suzhou is responsible for packaging and testing.

An industry insider revealed to 36Kr that the core advantage of Li Auto's silicon carbide modules lies in its integration capability from the perspective of a complete vehicle manufacturer. "Li Auto's logic is not simply stacking semiconductor parameters, but making the module smaller to free up more space inside the vehicle, and making the efficiency directly serve the actual driving range. That is to say, Li Auto understands better than suppliers what kind of parts automakers really need."

However, technological leadership usually cannot be smoothly translated into external supply, and one of the constraints is Li Auto's identity as an automaker.

To break the trust barrier brought by its identity as a vehicle manufacturer, Li Auto is promoting Sike to "de-Li-Auto-ize" and transform into a real third-party supplier.

Li Auto holds 70% equity in Sike Semiconductor. A person close to Sike Semiconductor told 36Kr that Sike has been reporting to Li Auto's manufacturing department since its establishment, but in February this year, Sike Semiconductor has become an independent company, and its management team now reports to Sike's board of directors.

"In the past, Sike and Li Auto were in the same system, and now Sike has completed the spin-off," the insider told 36Kr. In addition, Sike Semiconductor is actively seeking financing in the capital market and has launched its IPO plan. Sike's development rhythm is very clear: introduce external capital quickly, make its equity structure more neutral, so as to lower the trust threshold for other automakers to purchase its products.

The independence path of Li Auto's self-developed Maher chip business is similar to that of Sike Semiconductor.

In July 2026, Li Auto registered a new wholly-owned company: Xinchuang Zhihe (Shanghai) Technology Co., Ltd., whose business scope includes IC chip design and services, chip and product sales, etc., with Wang Yang as the legal representative. According to 36Kr, Wang Yang joined Li Auto in 2020, and currently serves as the Joint Company Secretary of Li Auto, who has long been in charge of capital market related affairs.

Multiple industry insiders revealed to 36Kr that the external supply of Li Auto's chip business is not very difficult, because many embodied intelligence companies founded by former Li Auto employees can smoothly reach cooperation.

At present, there are 5 embodied intelligence companies founded by former Li Auto employees: Chen Wei, former chief AI scientist of Li Auto, founded Xiyue Intelligence; Wang Kai, former CTO of Li Auto, founded Zhijian Power; Lang Xianpeng, former head of Li Auto's intelligent driving department, co-founded Kunlunxing; Xia Zhongpu, former joint CTO of Li Auto, joined Wujie Power as co-founder; Zhao Zhelun, former director of intelligent driving products of Li Auto, co-founded Weita Power.

For embodied intelligence companies, Li Auto's self-developed Maher M100 is indeed very attractive. It is specially designed for VLA and end-side large models, which is consistent with the current technical logic of robots, with lower adaptation difficulty than chips from manufacturers such as NVIDIA, which is indeed very attractive for startups.

The spin-off of the chip and silicon carbide businesses has just started. Technical capability is only a prerequisite. Whether buyers can trust its identity as an independent supplier will be the urgent problem to be solved at present.