Smartphone giant Xiaomi is one of China’s top three investors in semiconductor development on the back of a 10-year, 50 billion yuan (US$6.9 billion) spending programme that it rolled out in 2021, according to company founder, chairman and chief executive Lei Jun.
In a Monday post on Chinese microblogging site Weibo, Lei wrote that Xiaomi achieved the milestone as of April after spending 13.5 billion yuan and deploying 2,500 research-and-development (R&D) staff to work on its XRing O1 system-on-a-chip (SoC).
The new integrated circuit (IC) is expected to become China’s first 3-nanometre chip and the country’s most powerful smartphone SoC, according to a report by Chinese media outlet ICsmart, which cited sources.
“Chips [represent] the key race for us to make breakthroughs in hardcore technology,” Lei wrote.
His post also confirmed that the XRing O1 was based on the 3-nm lithography process in semiconductor manufacturing, but did not reveal which chip foundry was contracted to build the new IC.
Xiaomi is expected to host an event on Thursday to launch the XRing O1, along with new smartphones and tablets, as well as to preview the company’s first electric sports utility vehicle, the YU7.
Beijing-based Xiaomi did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.
