According to recent reports, Xiaomi is reportedly developing its custom chipset to decrease its dependence on Qualcomm and MediaTek. The company aims to bring more control over its hardware and improve performance with an in-house solution. Mass production of the new chipset is expected to commence next year, and Xiaomi plans to unveil the first smartphones powered by this chip in 2025, marking a significant step in the company’s push to further integrate its technology ecosystem.
Xiaomi’s New Chipset is Coming Next Year
This isn’t the first time we have seen rumors about the launch of an in-house developed Xiaomi chipset. In fact, the company launched its first mobile chipset in 2017, dubbed Xiaomi Surge S1. The chipset was found in the Xiaomi Mi 5c from the same year. It was a modest chipset for the low-end market, featuring old ARM Cortex-A53 cores, made to compete with the likes of the Snapdragon 430 and Snapdragon 625, which were popular back then. It wasn’t Xiaomi’s most successful bet, and the Surge series was buried shortly after its debut. However, rumors about the return of the company’s silicon division have been floating since then. They gained strength in the past years, after the US ban on Huawei.
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Chinese officials have been encouraging local companies to rely less on foreign technology. Xiaomi seems to be following this advice. However, it’s still unclear how Xiaomi will use its new chip. We don’t know which part of the market it will target. Also, we don’t even know how well it will perform against chips from Qualcomm and MediaTek. Are we going to see the return of the Surge series with the Surge S2? An affordable chipset made for the mid-range market seems like a safe path. However, we will need to wait for more information.
As per the reports, Xiaomi plans to spend around CNY 30 billion ($4.1 billion) on research and development in 2025, up from CNY 24 billion ($3.3 billion) this year. A big part of that money will likely go toward developing the new chip.