Huawei has become in recent years The best example to follow by Chinese manufacturers. It has been the first company to achieve full self -sufficiency (Understanding this as the manufacture of the product does not depend on companies outside of China), and marking a new line that the rest of the competitors want to follow.
Chinese sources They point out that Xiaomi has just created a new department for Chips’s own development, with a former Qualcomm executive leading it. The intention is clear: Xiaomi wants to be the next Chinese manufacturer to mark the way.
A new focus. According to Suehome Xiaomi sources, a new chips development department is establishing under the command of Qin Muyun, former product director at Qualcomm.
The company would be allocating resources to meet something that Huawei has been chasing for years: its own manufacturing to reduce dependence with giants such as MediaTak or Qualcomm.
Xiaomi already knows this path. In 2017 Xiaomi launched the Xiaomi Mi 5cthe company’s first phone with the chip S1 arises. It was the first time that Xiaomi, along with Pinecone Electronics, launched a phone with a chip of own development.
The Mi 5C was the only phone to use it, comparable to a Snapdragon of the 626 series, and functioning as a strategic experiment rather than a model to follow.
Beyond co-processors. Since 2017, Xiaomi has focused on the development of coprocessors. In 2021 the market was released Mix fold With the arise C1, an ISP (image processor) of Xiaomi. The arise P1 was the co-processor aimed at managing energy tasks during fast charge, trained in the Xiaomi 12 Pro. And models like the Xiaomi 13 Ultra They arrived with the G1 arise, also in charge of energy tasks.
Since then, Xiaomi has not resumed the development of a complete chip. Something that could be looking for the new investment.
The arduous task of developing its own processor. Developing chips is very expensive. So much, that TSMC has just announced increases of 30% due to the tariff war between the United States and China. With a lot of help from SMICthe main Chinese semiconductor giant, brands like Huawei have achieved the independence of TSMC.
Xiaomi would need the help of the Chinese government (fiscal exemptions, bonuses and direct aid) to manufacture their own chips with the help of SMIC, something that would help him reduce dependence with the American TSMC.
An example to follow. If Xiaomi manages to follow Huawei’s steps and become a company capable of producing its own chips, the Chinese industry will be hitting the table again. Hardware is not the only key, Xiaomi is committed to Hyperos with hardly any mentions of Android. He understands it as its own software, an ecosystem to be implemented in any consumption product.
The tariff storm is torpedoing the Big Tech strategywith China seeking to reduce dependence on US companies and vice versa. Achieving this is not viable in the short term, but the door has been opened to a change in the consumer industry as we know it.
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