The XRING 01 is proof that Xiaomi can make its own mark in the custom silicon game for smartphones and to ensure that it can hold its position against the likes of Qualcomm and MediaTek for future releases, the Chinese manufacturer is projected to invest a gargantuan sum of 200 billion yuan (approximately $28 billion) in R&D. Of course, not all of this amount will go towards the development of future SoCs, but a few billion is all Xiaomi needs.

With one million XRING 01 units shipped, Xiaomi looks to cement its position as a threat to its new chipset rivals

The one-million shipment mark of the XRING 01 is peanuts compared to the volume done by Qualcomm and MediaTek, but you know the old saying, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” For the past five years, Xiaomi has invested a total of 105.5 billion yuan, or around $14.77 billion, in categories like automobiles, custom silicon, foundational LLMs, major home appliances, and more. This near-$15 billion investment has brought in $64.02 billion in revenue, and it’s only expected to increase.

With Xiaomi projected to invest 200 billion yuan for the next five years, its upcoming XRING 03 will be one of the fruits of its labors. According to the President of Xiaomi Group, Lu Weibing, the next-generation custom silicon will launch later this year, and according to previous reports, Xiaomi won’t jump to TSMC’s latest and greatest 2nm process. Instead, it will stick to the older 3nm ‘N3P’ node, meaning that it will lose the technological race to its competitors, but the company has little reason to keep up with its rivals.

Given its current shipment volume, it makes little sense to leverage the newest lithography, with development, design, prototyping, tape-out, and mass production costing Xiaomi millions before smartphones featuring the XRING 03 begin to ship to various markets. It’s definitely a long waiting game, and Xiaomi is more than willing to be patient. To keep costs down, the XRING 03 will probably use ARM’s CPU and GPU designs, but this can be the start of something extraordinary.

After moving to the 2nm technology, Xiaomi can transition towards developing custom CPU cores like Qualcomm has with its Oryon series, but that’s not expected for a few years, as designing in-house cores is not only tricky but expensive. Fortunately, the goal is to start somewhere, and perhaps after several XRING iterations, Xiaomi has an entire ecosystem planned with its custom chipsets.

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