Chinese tech giant Xiaomi Corp (小米) is to invest 50 billion yuan (US$6.93 billion) in developing high-end smartphone chips, firm founder Lei Jun (雷軍) said yesterday.
Xiaomi, which sells goods from smartphones to vacuum cleaners and electric vehicles, is one of China’s most prominent consumer electronics firms.
Writing on social media platform WeChat to mark the 15th year since the company’s establishment, Lei said: “Chips are the underlying core track for Xiaomi to break through in cutting-edge technology, so we will definitely make an all-out effort.”
Photo: AFP
In pursuit of Xiaomi’s semiconductor ambitions, the firm has developed an investment plan involving “at least 10 years of investment and at least 50 billion yuan,” Lei added.
Xiaomi took initial steps into semiconductors for smartphones with the launch of the firm’s first in-house chip — the Surge S1 — in 2017. However, the group was forced to halt production of the chip due to technical and financial obstacles, and has since refocused on other components as well as a move into the electric vehicle sector.
“That is not our ‘dark history.’ That is the path we have traveled,” Lei wrote.
Since 2021, Xiaomi’s chip development program has already received 13.5 billion yuan in research-and-development funds for a team of more than 2,500 employees, he said.
The announcement comes in the face of heightened technological tensions between Beijing and Washington, as both nations seek to ensure access to the most advanced components.
A number of Chinese firms are racing to develop their own chips with the aim of freeing themselves from reliance on foreign suppliers in the face of that rivalry.
“Xiaomi has always had a ‘chip dream’,” Lei wrote. “I earnestly request everyone to give us more time and patience to support our continued exploration on this road.”
Cairo’s new monorail slices across the city skyline, running above the familiar chaos of blaring horns and aging buses’ exhaust fumes that mark rush hour below. The US$4.5 billion monorail, opened this month, is among Egypt’s most prominent new transport projects, part of a debt-funded infrastructure drive criticized for sapping state finances while bringing limited benefits to most of the country’s 109 million people. “It feels like you’re in a different country,” said Ramy Sayed, a restaurant manager, aboard a driverless Innovia 300 train. “No noise, no traffic, we’re not used to this.” The eastern line runs 56km from the bustling middle-class
Taiwanese firms have increased investment in the Philippines in recent years as Manila’s ties with Washington deepen and global supply chains continue to shift away from China, an expert at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The Philippines had not been among Taiwanese investors’ top choices in Southeast Asia, CIER Taiwan ASEAN Studies Center director Kristy Hsu (徐遵慈) said at a seminar in Taipei. However, Taiwan’s investment in the country has grown significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching US $257 million last year, a high in recent years, she said. Although Taiwan’s total investment in the Philippines still lags
Starlux Airlines Co (星宇航空) today unveiled a long-haul network expansion plan at a shareholders’ meeting in Taipei, including direct flights to Barcelona, Spain, and Zurich, Switzerland, as well as a service connecting Taipei, Sydney and New Zealand. Starlux is to become the first Taiwanese carrier to offer non-stop services to the two European cities, while the inaugural oceanic route is expected to expand transit opportunities within the Australia-New Zealand market, Starlux said. Flight services to Chicago, Dallas, Washington and New York are under evaluation, the airline added. Prior to the shareholders’ meeting, the airline earlier this year announced that it would be
Intel Corp regards Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) as a longstanding partner, as the US chipmaker would continue outsourcing production of advanced chips to TSMC, Intel chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) said yesterday. “I don’t look at people as competitors. I look at the collaboration... Nvidia is also, you know, a good friend,” Tan told a news conference following his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei. “It’s a very trusted partnership for us... We are a big, top customer for them, and we’re going to continue doing that,” he said, referring to TSMC, the world’s largest foundry
RSS