Xiaomi To Launch First Chinese 3nm Chip ‘XRING O1’

Lei Jun officially announced today that Xiaomi’s independently developed and designed smartphone SoC chip “Xuanjie O1,” aka Xring O1 based on second-generation 3nm process technology, will be unveiled soon.

Shortly after, Chinese state television officially confirmed that this is a breakthrough in 3nm chip design for mainland China, catching up with international advanced standards. Xiaomi will thus become the fourth company worldwide—after Apple, Qualcomm, and MediaTek—to release a self-developed 3nm smartphone processor chip.

First in Mainland China! The Xiaomi Xuanjie O1 processor is produced using second-generation 3nm technology — but why is the contract manufacturing not restricted?

Currently, only TSMC is capable of mass-producing second-generation 3nm process (for smartphone SoCs) at a large scale. Samsung’s yield rate with its own second-gen 3nm process still hasn’t met the required standard, and it’s struggling to meet internal demand.

Therefore, Xiaomi had only one choice for the Xuanjie O1 — to outsource manufacturing to TSMC.

Many are asking: Why is Xiaomi’s Xuanjie O1 not subject to foundry restrictions?

According to reports, after the U.S. imposed export restrictions in November last year, TSMC was no longer allowed to produce 7nm or more advanced AI chips for customers from mainland China. However, smartphone chips are largely exempt from these restrictions. Although not officially confirmed, that seems to be the case for now.

Another question arises: What will happen to Qualcomm now that Xiaomi has developed its own chip?

Until now, Qualcomm has been the main supplier of SoC chips for Xiaomi smartphones. Almost every generation of Snapdragon flagship chips was first launched in China by Xiaomi, and the two companies maintain a strong strategic partnership.

It is therefore foreseeable that, for a long time to come, the majority of Xiaomi’s main smartphone chips will still come from Qualcomm.

We speculate that as the performance of the Xuanjie O1 continues to improve, it will primarily be used in some flagship models — operating in parallel with Qualcomm chips.