Xiaomi Plans to Invest $7 Billion in Chip Production

Xiaomi plans to invest CNY50 billion ($6.9 billion) over ten years in its mobile processor ambitions. The company is set to unveil its first home-grown chip this week.

Co-founder Lei Jun revealed on the Chinese social media platform Weibo, stating that “chips are a peak we need to climb and a hard battle we cannot escape if we want to become a hard tech company”. The heightened push towards mobile chips comes as Lei confirmed it will unveil its first home-made processor, Xring O1, on 22 May, following speculation.

It first decided to embark on the Xring mobile chip project in 2021, and has since spent more than CNY13.5 billion on development, along with a planned CNY6 billion spend on research and development in 2025, said Lei. He also said the company now employs 2,500 people in its semiconductor team.

The new Xring 01 chip has been manufactured by TSMC using its 3-nanometre node, and has been developed by Xiaomi’s internal chip design unit and uses Arm’s architecture. Xiaomi could even have the edge over Huawei in the mobile chip space, as the latter vendor is unable to secure semiconductors more advanced than 7-nanometres due to restrictions placed on its production partner SMIC.