  The discovery of nickelate superconductivity provided the first example of a
non-copper-based material with superconductivity strongly analogous to the
cuprates, but recent findings raise questions and inconsistencies around the
electron counts and doping phase diagrams. We show using superconducting
La$_4$Ni$_3$O$_{10}$ that there are unconventional interlayer and interorbital
intrinsic doping effects that render the $d_{x^2-y^2}$ orbital occupation
similar to the cuprates. The results enable a consistent framework for
nickelate superconductivity, while maintaining the connection between cuprate
and nickelate superconductors.
