[News] Xiaomi Announces Homegrown XRING 01 Chipset, Reportedly Built on TSMC 3nm, Rivaling Snapdragon 8 Gen 2

According to Chinese media outlet ICsmart, Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun announced on the evening of May 15 that the company’s self-developed smartphone SoC, XRING 01, will be officially launched in late May. However, as the report notes, he did not disclose further details about XRING 01.

As the report points out, Xiaomi is the fourth smartphone brand globally—after Apple, Samsung, and Huawei—to develop its own mobile SoC. In 2017, it launched its first self-developed chip, the Surge S1, but the chip failed in the market due to weak baseband capabilities.

Citing sources, the report indicates that Xiaomi’s XRING 01 may be built using TSMC’s 3nm process, stating that XRING 01 is expected to become China’s first 3nm chip and the most powerful smartphone SoC in the country.

While some may argue that advanced TSMC nodes are no longer available to China, the report clarifies that this is not the case. Current U.S. export restrictions primarily target AI chips, while consumer-grade chips remain unaffected, as the report indicates.

Notably, according to Wccftech, Xiaomi reportedly completed the tape-out of its 3nm chipset last year, hinting at a possible 2025 launch—potentially tied to its in-house SoC development.

As noted by ICsmart, XRING 01 is based on Arm architecture and will reportedly feature an 8-core or 10-core tri-cluster CPU design, including Arm’s most powerful core to date—the Cortex-X925—alongside the high-end Immortalis-G925 GPU.

Overall performance is expected to be comparable to or even exceed that of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, as highlighted by ICsmart.

In addition, the baseband chip will likely rely on an external 5G modem from MediaTek or UNISOC, as mentioned by ICsmart.

Xiaomi has reportedly assigned a team of 1,000 personnel to develop the XRING 01, with the project led by a former senior Qualcomm director who reports directly to CEO Lei Jun—underscoring the company’s strong commitment to advancing its in-house chip development, as noted by Wccftech.

Read more

• [News] Xiaomi Reportedly Forms 1,000-Strong Team for In-house Chip amid U.S. Scrutiny, with May Launch Ahead
• [News] Qualcomm Reportedly Skips Samsung, Taps TSMC’s 4nm for Snapdragon 8s Gen 4

(Photo credit: Xiaomi)