In mid-May 2025, Xiaomi, the Chinese tech giant known for its phones and electric vehicles, made a big announcement. The company said, that it plans to launch its own mobile chip, called the Xring O1, by late May of this year .
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| Xiaomi's Xring 01 |
Why This Matters
Xiaomi is not new to chip design,it previously tried to build its own mobile processors, releasing one in 2017 called the Pengpai S1. But by 2019, high costs led the company to put its chip plans on hold and instead focus on simpler chips like camera sensors and power-management units. That changed in 2021,
The Tech Behind It
The Xring O1 chip is based on ARM architecture which is produced by using TSMC’s latest 3-nanometer proces, the most advanced manufacturing technology currently available .
Why Make Your Own Chip?
Building your own processor gives you to control your own device like smoother performance, better battery life, and a more unique hardware and software experience. That is exactly why Apple and Huawei design their own chip and now Xiaomi is making same thing
Today, Xiaomi’s top smartphones—like the new Xiaomi 15 Ultra—use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite processors. Qualcomm remains a huge player for Xiaomi in 2024, it earned $17.8 billion from chip sales in China .
Following the announcement, neither Xiaomi nor Qualcomm offered additional statements or details .
What’s Next for Xiaomi’s Chip Dreams?
Around the same time, Xiaomi’s founder, Lei Jun, revealed that the company had already invested about $1.9 billion in developing the Xring O1. And that is just the start Xiaomi plans to invest at least around $6.9 billion in chip design over the next ten years .
Moreover, the company is going even bigger—announcing about $27.8 billion focus in core technology R&D over the coming five years. That includes both semiconductor development and other technology
That is a great effort by Xiaomi to build it's own brain inside its product and reduce dependence on external suppliers.
