Xiaomi to Reportedly Refresh In-House Smartphone Chips Annually; Eyes Global Expansion of AI Assistant

It’s said Xiaomi will yearly update its in-house chips for its smartphones. Earlier Wednesday, officials told a paper on the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2026 in Barcelona that the Chinese company plans to deploy its proprietary mobile processors in Xiaomi devices sold globally — not just at home turf. It is also working on extending its artificial intelligence (AI) assistant for overseas markets.

Xiaomi Tech Stack Outside China

According to Xiaomi President Lu Weibing, who spoke with CNBC last week that the company’s next chip will be released in 2026 as part of its long-term semiconductor roadmap, a “very promising future” is expected for this chip. It will launch an annual refresh of Xiaomi’s proprietary chipsets for mobile devices, in the wake of Apple and Google, whose silicon is behind their smartphones.

Xiaomi official said the company considers chip development as a strategic investment. It’s a long-term commitment,’ said “This is. I’m going to continue investing in chip development,’ Lu told CNBC.

Last year the XRing O1 was the first modern in-house smartphone processor, introduced by the China-based OEM. TSMC’s 3nm node chip, which was designed to be the first of its own kind (advanced) chips, launched in the Xiaomi 15S Pro and the newer version called the Mi Pad 7 Ultra. It was a symbol of Xiaomi’s new wave in the development of custom silicon.

While Xiaomi has not disclosed technical details of future iterations of the chip, subsequent variants are likely to boost performance and efficiency. The most notable aspect of this announcement is the chip’s availability. XRing 01 SoC is only available in China, But Weibinger pointed out that Xiaomi plans to launch the chips on smartphones released internationally as well.

Report Xiaomi is also working on extending its AI assistant outside China. Xiao AI is the company’s current assistant that has been focused on its ecosystem and integrates with Xiaomi smartphones, smart home products and other connected devices. Nevertheless, it is only in the Chinese market as of today.

In a move known as “the next big thing” about Xiaomi, Lu told CNBC that it is coming to the international market with an AI assistant because it’s expanding its presence globally,” Li said. The company previously said it plans to launch its electric car in Europe around 2027. aiming for Xiaomi to use the AI assistant in its larger ecosystem across mobile devices and an electric vehicle (EV) network.

“We want the AI assistant across smartphones and cars,” Lu said, outlining the company’s vision for a connected software platform.