Xiaomi will double the five-year research and development investment to 100 billion "dead bump technology" Self-developed chip surging P1 mainly attack charging endurance

Economic Observation Network reporter Qian Yujuan On the evening of December 28, before Xiaomi released the 2021 finale - Xiaomi 12 series, Lei Jun, founder, chairman and CEO of Xiaomi Group, summed up the "twists and turns" of the past year.

As the beginning of Xiaomi's 2021, Xiaomi 11, and the subsequent Xiaomi 11Ultra, were once the "symbol" of Xiaomi's high-end power, but in terms of product quality and user experience, they were frequently complained about by rice noodles.

Lei Jun admitted that the user's feedback made him and his colleagues in Xiaomi feel pressured, at the same time, he also realized the necessity of "not failing to live up to rice noodles" and "dead hardcore technology".

Two years ago, Xiaomi formulated a "5-year plan" with a research and development investment of 50 billion yuan, and from the latest data given by Lei Jun, Xiaomi has invested 22 billion yuan. In Lei Jun's view, this is not enough to support Xiaomi's "dream", and he decided to directly double the scale of investment to 100 billion yuan.

On the eve of the 28th, the reporter talked to a brokerage person who has long been concerned about Millet, "Xiaomi's mobile phone route has some problems. He feels that Xiaomi's investment in the core mobile phone business has "not changed much", although in the past 2021, the focus has been on high-end and offline channels, but "the main mobile phone business has not brought a strong growth momentum", he also attributed this to "an important reason for Xiaomi's recent stock price downturn".

However, when Lei Jun stressed the need for "dead technology" and Xiaomi continued to increase its investment in research and development, the above-mentioned brokers also waited and watched. He also saw that Xiaomi finally started from the 12 series, through the development of a "double size, double flagship" strategy, officially benchmarked Apple.

In the second quarter of 2021, Xiaomi surpassed Apple for the first time and ranked second in global smartphone shipments. Lei Jun talked about this, knowing that "catching up" was short, but to a certain extent, it still added confidence to Xiaomi to impact the high-end market.

With Samsung and Apple, not only the benchmarking of mobile phone products, but also the competition at the supply chain end is also unfolding.

The reporter learned from Xiaomi that at present, in the form of industrial investment, the official cooperates with about 100 enterprises in the upstream industrial chain such as communication technology, analog semiconductors, touch displays, batteries, industrial automation, precision manufacturing and materials to enhance the localization rate of products.

According to Xiaomi, there are nearly 60 domestic supply chain partners in the Xiaomi 12 series. In addition to focusing on the screen, material technology, image and other parameter indicators, the surging P1, which was previously promoted by Lei Jun Weibo as "self-developed 'small chip'", was equipped with the Xiaomi Mi 12Pro.

As Xiaomi's third self-developed chip, Lei Jun said at the press conference that this chip has undergone 18 months of research and development, as a charging chip, not only can the mobile phone be fully charged in the fastest 18 minutes in rapid mode, but also allow the same capacity battery to last for one hour.

Looking back at the process of Xiaomi's self-developed chips, from the end of February 2017, the surging S1 started, but in the four years after this SoC chip, Xiaomi's "chip dream" was through the Yangtze River Industry Fund, adding a number of semiconductor companies in the form of investment, and its investment layout in the chip field exceeded 40 by the beginning of 2021.

On the eve of the release of the surging P1, Xiaomi invested 1.5 billion yuan and bet on a chip company, Shanghai Xuanjing Technology Co., Ltd.

In addition to investment, Xiaomi has not given up on self-developed chips. According to Xiaomi insiders, "the surging core is beating again in the first half of 2021." At that time, the surging C1, as an ISP chip independent of the motherboard IQ, mainly focused on the image processing of mobile phones.

So far, for more than four years, Xiaomi has released three chips, S1, C1, and P1, which are built in different subdivisions such as SoC, imaging, and charging. Focusing on domestic mobile phone manufacturers, in addition to cooperation with Qualcomm, MediaTek, etc., the road of self-developed chips has gradually developed from Huawei's one-flower to OPPO, Xiaomi and other hundred flowers.

According to public data, Xiaomi's current patent applications for "chips" exceed 730, and the iteration of chip products does indeed show Xiaomi's achievements in the field of chip self-development, but a mobile phone industry observer who did not want to be named asked, "After the release of the chip, can a large number of installations be carried out on different models in the future?" ”

What cannot be ignored is that the mobile phone that was once equipped with the surging S1 was complained about by rice noodles, "this is undoubtedly a lesson from the past", the above observers will pay attention to the follow-up, and the rice noodle users will respond to the Xiaomi 12Pro equipped with the surging P1.