TECH

Xiaomi Unveils First Self-Developed 3nm System-on-Chip Rivaling Apple’s A18 Pro

Published: May. 23, 2025 6:35 a.m. GMT+8

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Lei Jun, chief executive officer of Xiaomi Corp.

After four years of behind-the-scenes development, Xiaomi has officially joined the top tier of smartphone chipmakers with the launch of its first in-house 3-nanometer system-on-chip (SoC), the Surge Xuanjie O1, along with its first self-developed 4G baseband chip, the Xuanjie T1.

The announcement came during the company’s product launch event in Beijing on Thursday, where Xiaomi also introduced its new flagship phone 15s Pro and 7Ultra tablet — both powered by the Xuanjie O1— as well as a smartwatch using the T1 chip.

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Xiaomi launched its first in-house 3nm SoC, the Surge Xuanjie O1, and a 4G baseband chip, Xuanjie T1, powering new flagship devices.
The O1, built on TSMC’s 3nm N3E node, features a 10-core CPU, 16-core GPU, 6-core NPU (44 TOPS), and rivals or surpasses Apple’s A18 Pro in GPU and multi-core performance.
Xiaomi invested 13 billion yuan in chip R&D; initial O1 shipments are small and costly, with continued reliance on Qualcomm and MediaTek for most SoCs.

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Who’s Who

Xiaomi: Xiaomi has launched its first in-house 3nm system-on-chip, the Surge Xuanjie O1, and a self-developed 4G baseband chip, the Xuanjie T1. These chips power the new 15s Pro phone and 7Ultra tablet. Built on TSMC’s 3nm process, the Xuanjie O1 features top-tier performance, rivaling Apple’s A18 Pro. Xiaomi’s chip team exceeds 2,500 engineers, with 13 billion yuan invested in R&D, marking a significant step in hardware innovation.

TSMC: TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) is the foundry that manufactures Xiaomi’s Xuanjie O1 chip using its advanced second-generation 3nm N3E process. This is the same process node used for Apple’s A18 and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite chips, offering high power efficiency and transistor density, and placing Xiaomi among top chip designers leveraging TSMC’s cutting-edge technology.

Apple: Apple is mentioned as one of the select companies, alongside Xiaomi, Samsung, and Huawei, that design their own high-end mobile processors. Xiaomi’s new Xuanjie O1 chip uses TSMC’s second-generation 3nm process, the same advanced node as Apple’s A18 chips, and is compared to Apple’s A18 Pro, with Xiaomi claiming better multi-core and GPU benchmarks but slightly lower single-core performance.

Samsung: According to the article, Samsung is mentioned as one of the select companies — alongside Apple and Huawei — that design their own high-end mobile processors. This highlights Samsung’s position as a top-tier smartphone chipmaker with in-house chip design capabilities, similar to Xiaomi’s new status.

Huawei: According to the article, Huawei is mentioned as one of the select group of companies, alongside Apple, Samsung, and now Xiaomi, that designs its own high-end mobile processors. This highlights Huawei’s place among the world’s top-tier smartphone chipmakers who develop proprietary mobile SoCs.

Arm: According to the article, the Xuanjie O1 chip is based on Arm architecture. Arm is a widely used chip design architecture known for its power efficiency and high performance, commonly found in most smartphones and mobile devices. Arm-based processors are designed by Arm Holdings and licensed to companies like Xiaomi, Apple, and Qualcomm, enabling them to create customized SoCs for their products.

Qualcomm: According to the article, Qualcomm supplied 35% of Xiaomi’s smartphone SoCs in 2024 and announced a new multi-year agreement on May 20 to continue providing its Snapdragon 8 series chips for Xiaomi’s high-end devices.

MediaTek: According to the article, in 2024, Xiaomi relied entirely on external suppliers for its smartphone SoCs, sourcing 63% from MediaTek. This indicates that MediaTek was Xiaomi’s largest supplier of smartphone processors that year, followed by Qualcomm and a small percentage from China’s Unisoc.

Unisoc: According to the article, in 2024, only 2% of Xiaomi’s smartphone system-on-chip (SoC) supply came from China’s Unisoc, indicating that Unisoc is a minor external supplier for Xiaomi compared to MediaTek and Qualcomm.

Beijing Pinecone Electronics Co. Ltd.: Beijing Pinecone Electronics Co. Ltd. was created by Xiaomi in 2014 as part of the company’s chip development efforts. It developed Xiaomi’s first SoC, the Surge S1, which launched in 2017 in the budget Mi 5C phone. However, the S1 underperformed due to its outdated 28nm process, lagging behind the industry’s 16nm standard at the time.

Dayu Semiconductor: Dayu Semiconductor was formed from part of Xiaomi’s original chip team after the Surge S2 chip development was halted in 2018. The team was split, with some joining Dayu to focus on AI and IoT chips, while others continued working on Xiaomi’s mobile chip research.

Xuanjie Technology Co., Ltd.: Xuanjie Technology Co., Ltd. is Xiaomi’s Shanghai-based chipmaking hub, established in 2021 with a registered capital of 1.5 billion yuan. It is responsible for developing system-on-chips (SoCs), power management chips, and imaging chips. The organization is part of Xiaomi’s expanded semiconductor strategy and is led by Vice President Zhu Dan, with its broader chip team now exceeding 2,500 engineers and having accumulated 13 billion yuan in R&D investment.

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