Chinese electronics giant Xiaomi has announced plans to put in a staggering 50 billion yuan (approximately $6.93 billion) over a decade into semiconductor design. The company’s founder and CEO Lei Jun confirmed the investment via a post on Weibo, the Chinese social media platform, detailing that the initiative began four years ago, and aims to help Xiaomi make a name for itself in the global semiconductor sector.
This marks a departure from Xiaomi’s origins as a consumer electronics firm primarily known for budget smartphones and home appliances. Recent times have seen the company steadily expanded its reach into electric vehicles and AI-powered devices, and so far, Xiaomi has committed 13.5 billion yuan to develop its maiden advanced mobile chip, the XringO1. The company also revealed it has built a dedicated semiconductor team of more than 2,500 engineers. The proprietary silicon can power smartphones, a broader ecosystem of AIoT (AI of Things) products, and electric vehicles.
This new investment comes as a part of a broader trend across major tech firms. The global chip design and manufacturing sector is rapidly transforming due to advancements in AI and a growing demand for specialized processors – a report by Infosys reveals that semiconductor firms across the world are expected to allocate nearly $185 billion for the current year. In the US, for example, tech titan Apple continues to refine its in-house silicon through the M-series chips used in MacBooks and iPads, while Alphabet (Google) has similarly accelerated work on its Tensor chips. Meta Platforms, Amazon, and Microsoft are also investing billions into developing AI-optimized silicon to support their cloud computing and consumer hardware portfolios.
Meanwhile, Taiwan’s TSMC and South Korea’s Samsung remain dominant in manufacturing capabilities and have captured a major portion of the market. Beijing has placed semiconductors at the heart of its “Made in China 2025” industrial policy, which aims to lift the country’s reliance on foreign chip technology to under 30% by mid-decade. Xiaomi’s 50 billion yuan bet places it in a growing cohort of Chinese firms such as Huawei, SMIC, and Baidu, all of which are accelerating chip development despite export restrictions imposed by the US and its allies.
Currently, companies like SMIC (with a market share of 6%) have made strides in 7nm processing, though they remain behind global leaders like TSMC and Intel, which are developing 3nm and below. It remains to be seen whether Xiaomi teams up with foundries outside China to produce its chips at scale, especially in the short term. It will be facing an uphill battle, especially since the likes of Nvidia and Qualcomm are some of the biggest names in the chipmaking industry and have decades of experience. Still, if Xiaomi succeeds, then an effective in-house chip could dramatically improve performance across the company’s devices, allow for differentiated user experiences, and provide better security and privacy controls.
Content originally published on The Tech Media – Global technology news, latest gadget news and breaking tech news.
