Xiaomi is preparing to take more aggressive steps in custom processor development. It has been revealed that the company plans to invest a total of 200 billion yuan, approximately $28 billion, in research and development for its XRING series over the next 5 years. The company's goal is not just to produce smartphones, but to build a broad technology ecosystem ranging from automobiles to artificial intelligence models.
Xiaomi is building its own chip ecosystem
For those who missed it, XRING 01, one of the first custom processors developed by Xiaomi, was one of the company's most significant steps in this field. Although the chip's shipment volume of 1 million units lagged behind Qualcomm and MediaTek, the company has begun long-term planning. In the last 5 years, the company has invested a total of 105.5 billion yuan in areas such as automotive, custom silicon, large language models, and smart home products.
These investments are reported to have generated approximately $64 billion in revenue for the company. Now, Xiaomi aims to nearly double this investment. According to shared information, the next-generation processor, XRING 03, could be introduced later this year. Details shared by Lu Weibing indicate that Xiaomi will not transition to TSMC's 2nm manufacturing process for its new chip. Instead, the company will stick with the more mature and cost-effective 3nm "N3P" process.
While this decision might initially seem like falling behind in the technological race, it could be a logical choice given Xiaomi's current production volume. This is because next-generation manufacturing technologies incur significant costs in design, prototype development, testing, and mass production. It is said that Xiaomi will likely continue to use ARM-based CPU and GPU designs in the XRING 03.
However, Xiaomi's long-term goal is to develop its own processor cores entirely, much like Qualcomm has done with its Oryon architecture. Especially considering Apple's success with its A-series processors and Qualcomm's custom core strategy, Xiaomi's entry into a similar path could further intensify competition in the mobile processor market in the coming years.
0 Comments: