Chinese smartphone company Xiaomi is developing its own chip called Xring O1.
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BEIJING – Chinese smartphone company Xiaomi is taking on Apple’s iPhone with advanced chips and cheap mobile phones.
Xiaomi has won the fight over the latest phone pricing. The new Xiaomi 15S Pro starts at 5,499 yuan ($764), and is eligible for a discount on state subsidies, and is considerably cheaper than the Apple model, which includes the company’s most advanced phone chips. The iPhone 16 Pro starts at 7,999 yuan, while the iPhone Pro Max model starts at 9,999 yuan.
Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun claims his company also has a competitive chip, and at launch event Thursday said Xiaomi’s new Xring O1 defeated Apple’s A18 Pro with several technical metrics, including its ability to control the game with less heat.
CNBC does not independently validate these claims. CNBC reached out to Apple for comment.
According to a CNBC translation, Ray said in Mandarin. He said the performance of the Xring O1 should not be seen as an attempt to put pressure on the apples, but as an indicator of the enormous efforts Xiaomi has made to develop comparable processors.
The US is increasingly limiting China’s ability to access high-end equipment to develop advanced semiconductors used to train artificial intelligence models.
Lei didn’t discuss the crucial AI features of the 15S Pro, but showed how it can be used to lock and unlock compatible cars.
He announced that Xiaomi will spend 20 billion yuan on research and development over the next five years starting in 2026, predicting revenue growth of 30% this year.
Lei teased a 3-nanometer chip on Chinese social media app Weibo last week. He later said that chips were in mass production and that the company would invest at least 50 billion yuan ($6.9 billion) in its own chip development over the next decade.
Apple’s iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max use the A18 Pro chip built on the same 3-nanometer process.
According to Neil Shah, a research partner at Counterpoint, about 40% of Xiaomi phones currently use chips by Qualcomm and MediaTek.
Xiaomi spent 13.5 billion ($1.87 billion) over four years developing the Xring O1, Lei said in a social media post. He revealed that the company would temporarily suspend such research after it began developing chips in 2014 and published chips in 2017.
Last spring, Xiaomi launched its first electric vehicle, the Su7 sedan. This is $4,000 less than the price of the Tesla Model 3 at the time. Ford CEO Jim Farley said he spent months driving a Xiaomi electric vehicle as he tried to assess competition with Chinese automakers.
Xiaomi’s first SUV is called the Yu7 and will be officially released in July, Ray said in a social media post that the car’s price will not be revealed on Thursday. Ray shared some promotional images and car features at the event.
The company delivered more than 28,000 vehicles in April, from more than 29,000 records the previous month. It happened after a crash in China, where three people died. China has since asked car manufacturers to use more conservative language when advertising driver assist systems.
Xiaomi is scheduled to release its first quarter results on May 27th after the company reported record revenue and net profits for 2024 in March. Sales generated from overseas markets last year accounted for nearly 42% of total revenue.
The company’s shares remained higher than 50% since the start of the year.
– CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal and Bernice Ooi contributed to this report.
