A 10-Year Plan with R&D Investment of 50 Billion! Xiaomi's Self-Developed SoC, Xuanjie, is About to Launch, Expected to Drive Multi-Link Adaptation Across the Supply Chain

Xiaomi will launch its self-developed smartphone SoC chip, Xuanjie O1, on May 22, alongside the release of its second car model, the SUV YU7. The chip will adopt the second-generation 3nm process technology. Lei Jun, founder and chairman of Xiaomi Group, stated, "(Xuanjie O1) aims to join the first-tier flagship experience."

According to a report by the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily, although the chip has not been officially released, some industry chain collaborations have gradually emerged. Among them, Beijing Xuanjie Technology Co., Ltd. has signed a testing service agreement with Orient Zhongke, involving performance evaluation and reliability verification of the SoC chip.

Meanwhile, some domestic chip companies have maintained long-term collaboration with Xiaomi in platform adaptation. A representative from Southchip Technology stated that the company conducts charging chip adaptation verification with Xiaomi's new products every year; Maxscend Technologies indicated that its products cover almost all of Xiaomi's platforms. Although these companies have not explicitly participated in the Xuanjie O1 project itself, their related technical directions have already laid the foundation for serving the new generation of system-level chips.

Xiaomi's Self-Developed SoC Drives Local Supply Chain

During the advancement of the Xuanjie O1 project, some domestic chip companies have demonstrated their collaborative foundation with Xiaomi in related technical directions through cooperation records or public statements.

In the chip testing and verification phase, Beijing Xuanjie Technology Co., Ltd. signed a service agreement with Orient Zhongke to provide performance evaluation and reliability testing for its SoC chip. This is currently the only supply cooperation directly related to the Xuanjie chip disclosed through business information, indicating that the project has entered the system verification stage.

In the power management phase, Southchip Technology has maintained long-term adaptation cooperation with Xiaomi. A company representative stated in an interview with the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily that charging chips typically require collaborative verification with the entire circuit system, "the company conducts adaptation with Xiaomi's new products every year," and mentioned that SoC products require a higher level of system coordination. Although the response did not directly involve the Xuanjie O1 project, the collaborative model and technical direction show that both parties have established a stable docking mechanism.

In the RF module phase, Maxscend Technologies told the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily that the company maintains a platform-level cooperation relationship with Xiaomi, "our products are present in almost all of Xiaomi's platforms." Public information shows that Maxscend has provided RF front-end devices for multiple mid-to-high-end Xiaomi models, covering 5G, WiFi, and other communication module solutions. The company has not disclosed whether it is involved in the Xuanjie project, but its product layout already covers the core device forms required for SoC integrated communication paths.

As of now, no other companies have explicitly disclosed their participation in the Xuanjie O1 project.

The reporter from the "Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily" noted that some industry chain companies already possess the capability to support platform SoCs, but whether they are involved in this project remains unconfirmed.

Compared to functional chips such as power management and RF modules, mobile phone SoCs, due to their high integration, complex processes, and substantial cost investments, remain the most challenging part of the domestic chip system. Currently, end-user brands with mobile phone SoC R&D capabilities are still in the minority, mainly concentrated among leading producers and self-built chip teams.

The chip self-development plan involves a 10-year investment of 50 billion yuan.

Among the whole machine brand camp, OPPO previously released the Mariana X (imaging ISP) and Mariana Y (audio SoC), but has not advanced to the application processor (AP) level; vivo has laid out image and AI processing through the customized V-series chips, with the latest V3 chip already capable of interacting with the main control platform; Honor released its self-developed industry-first RF enhancement chip C1 on the Magic5 series of phones, iterating to C1+.

Xiaomi's launch of the Xuanjie O1 marks its re-entry into the SoC main control chip field since the Surge S1 in 2017. It is reported that the Surge S1 was installed in the Xiaomi 5c model. Subsequently, due to various factors, the SoC project was temporarily suspended, and the company shifted to laying out multiple "small chip" modules, including auxiliary chips in the fields of power management, fast charging, battery, and imaging.

Lei Jun stated today (May 19) that in 2021, Xiaomi decided to restart the SoC large chip business, advancing it simultaneously with the car manufacturing project. The Xuanjie project was thus initiated, and a long-term R&D plan of "10 years and 50 billion yuan" was formulated. "As of the end of April 2024, Xuanjie's cumulative R&D investment has exceeded 13.5 billion yuan, with a team size of 2,500 people. This year's R&D investment is expected to exceed 6 billion yuan, ranking among the top three in the domestic chip design field in terms of scale."

"Chips are the peak we must climb," Lei Jun said, adding that Xiaomi's goal in chip-making is to master advanced chip technology and build underlying capability support for the high-end strategy.

From the perspective of supply chain participation depth, the domestic market has formed a relatively mature supporting ecosystem in segments such as PMIC, RF, packaging, and audio, but the localization rate remains low in core components such as main control chips, ISPs, and communication basebands.

According to relevant analysis and market monitoring data from Counterpoint Research, as of 2024, the domestic mobile phone SoC market is still dominated by producers such as Qualcomm, MediaTek, and Apple. Except for some domestic brands having certain layouts in specific low and mid-end fields, breakthroughs in core areas such as high-end SoCs are limited, and market share has not yet formed an effective scale.

Xuanjie O1 has not yet been released, but the system-level synergy path it presents has become a new perspective for observing the promotion approach, verification mechanism, and supporting capabilities of domestic SoC projects. In the next phase, whether the project can achieve performance closure in end-use products and form a replicable platform path remains to be seen based on market feedback and continuous follow-up.