Xiaomi is doubling down on its custom silicon ambitions, with president Lu Weibing telling CNBC the company plans yearly releases of its XRing chips. This marks a significant shift from earlier statements where Xiaomi's vice president said the company "couldn't commit" to such an undertaking. The move comes after Xiaomi invested 30 billion yuan (approximately $4.1 billion) in chip development.

Last year's XRing O1 debuted with a 10-core design featuring Arm's v9.2 cores, positioning Xiaomi to compete with other manufacturers' custom silicon. The company has also created a dedicated chip platform department and brought in Qualcomm veteran Qin Muyun to lead the effort. These organizational changes mirror similar moves by Google and Samsung when they committed to in-house chip development.

Xiaomi plans to expand beyond China, with Lu stating the 2026 XRing chip will appear in both Chinese and global phone releases. The company is also preparing to bring its Xiao AI assistant to international markets across phones and vehicles. This aggressive chip strategy suggests Xiaomi is positioning itself for greater control over its hardware ecosystem and differentiation in an increasingly competitive smartphone market.