Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun announced the company’s first self-developed mobile chipset, the XRING 01, through a series of Weibo (#2)posts on Thursday. The introduction confirms growing speculation around Xiaomi’s renewed efforts to design chips in-house, marking a new chapter in the company’s semiconductor ambitions.
In his initial post, Lei shared a brief message with followers: “I would like to share with you a piece of news: Xiaomi’s self-developed and designed mobile phone SoC chip, named XRING 01, will be released in late May. Thank you for your support!” While the post did not include technical details, it served as formal confirmation of Xiaomi’s internal chipset project, which has been in quiet development for some time.
A second follow-up post gave a glimpse into the history behind the initiative. Lei reflected on Xiaomi’s chipmaking journey, which officially began in 2014. “Time flies, and more than ten years have passed in the blink of an eye,” he wrote, alongside photos from the company’s first chip launch event held in early 2017. That earlier effort produced the Surge S1, a mid-range processor that saw limited use before the project went silent for several years.
The XRING 01 appears to be the result of a long-term strategy to regain momentum in semiconductor design. In early May, reports emerged that Xiaomi had assembled a dedicated chipset division, reportedly employing over 1,000 staff. The unit was said to be working on a project codenamed “Xring,” which now appears to be the basis for the announced SoC.
Although Xiaomi has yet to reveal specifications or performance targets for the XRING 01, previous leaks from late 2024 suggested the chip may be built on TSMC’s 4 nm N4P process and could incorporate recent Arm Cortex CPU cores. These claims remain unverified, and Xiaomi has not confirmed any hardware details.
Currently, Xiaomi’s flagship smartphones, including the recently launched Xiaomi 15 Ultra, rely heavily on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chipsets. The Ultra 15 is equipped with the Snapdragon 8 Elite (Gen 4), Qualcomm’s latest top-tier SoC. It remains to be seen whether Xiaomi will transition future high-end devices to its own silicon or target mid-range segments initially.
Xiaomi joins a growing number of Chinese tech firms investing in domestic chip development as part of a broader industry trend to reduce reliance on foreign suppliers. With the XRING 01, the company takes a concrete step toward achieving that goal, though commercial success will depend on how the chip performs in real-world applications.
The full reveal of the XRING 01 is expected later this month.
