Xiaomi has announced significant news, with the launch of the Xuanjie O1 expected in late May!
On May 15, Lei Jun, the founder of Xiaomi Group, announced on social media that Xiaomi’s self-developed mobile SoC chip, named Xuanjie O1, will be released in late May.
As an important downstream field for SoC chips, smartphone SoC chips have long been dominated by manufacturers such as Qualcomm and MediaTek. Huawei’s Kirin series SoC chips can compete with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon series products, and the upcoming release of Xiaomi’s O1 will strengthen the ranks of domestic smartphone SoC chips.
Today, we will delve into the current state of the SoC chip market and explore industry opportunities.
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1. Xiaomi’s Upcoming Release of Xuanjie O1 Marks an Important Moment for Domestic Smartphone SoC Chips
Xiaomi’s self-developed SoC chip is of great significance for domestic chips. Looking at global tech giants, only a few, such as Apple, Samsung, and Huawei, have their own mobile SoC chips, and Xiaomi has also made significant breakthroughs in the SoC chip field.
The SoC chip, or System on Chip, is a crucial product of continuous advancements in chip manufacturing processes. From the literal meaning of SoC chips, we can understand that these chips can integrate multiple chips to achieve complex functions, greatly impacting the lightweight development of today’s smartphones.
For example, when we use various functions on our phones, such as opening the phone, launching a browser, and searching for information, the CPU (Central Processing Unit), which acts as the brain of the phone, helps us complete these operations. The main functions of the CPU include processing various instructions and computing data. When we play games or watch videos, the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) is needed to render graphics and videos. If we want to use the phone’s AI features for voice recognition, text translation, or image recognition, the phone may need to utilize the NPU (Neural Processing Unit). Whether it’s the CPU, GPU, or NPU, they can all be integrated into a single chip, forming an SoC chip.
Due to the integration of multiple chips, SoC chips require ensuring hardware and software synergy. To enhance the R&D efficiency of SoC chips, IP reuse technology can enable the repeated use of already designed and verified IC modules (IP cores).
As a significant player in the global smartphone market, Xiaomi needs to utilize a large number of mobile SoC chips. Ensuring the security of the chip supply chain, improving product efficiency, and reducing component costs have become important issues for Xiaomi, which is why the company has been continuously investing in the chip field.
As early as 2014, Xiaomi established a wholly-owned subsidiary, Beijing Pinecone Electronics Co., Ltd. (later renamed Beijing Xiaomi Pinecone Electronics Co., Ltd.), officially entering the mobile chip market. In 2017, Xiaomi released its first self-developed SoC chip, the Surge S1, which was used in the Xiaomi 5C phone. However, Xiaomi’s progress in the mobile SoC chip field has been relatively slow since then.
The upcoming Xuanjie O1 is developed by Beijing Xuanjie Technology Co., Ltd., whose legal representative is Zeng Xuezhong, Senior Vice President of Xiaomi Group. Beijing Xuanjie has built a strong R&D team and has applied for multiple chip invention patents this year.
2. Global SoC Chip Market Steadily Grows, Multiple A-Share Companies Have Laid Out
As early as the 1990s, Motorola released the FlexCore system, which was based on IP cores to complete SoC chip design. After nearly 30 years of development, SoC chips have been widely used in consumer electronics, automotive electronics, medical devices, and other fields.
According to Verified Market Reports, the global SoC chip market size is approximately $172 billion in 2023, and it is expected to grow to $338.9 billion by 2030, with a compound annual growth rate of 8%. The main drivers of the stable growth of the SoC chip market include the increasing demand for consumer electronics such as smartphones and tablets, and the expansion of IoT applications, as well as the closer connection between SoC chips and artificial intelligence technology.
In the mobile SoC chip field, Qualcomm, MediaTek, Samsung, Huawei HiSilicon, and Apple are key players. According to Counterpoint’s May report on “Global Smartphone SoC Revenue and Forecast Tracking for Q4 2024,” global revenue from high-end Android SoC chips is expected to grow by 34% year-on-year in 2024.
Qualcomm holds a 59% market share, but its growth rate is only 6%. In October 2024, Qualcomm will launch the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 at the Snapdragon Summit, with upgrades in core architecture, AI, CPU, and GPU. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 has abandoned the ARM architecture in favor of its own Oryon architecture.
With Huawei’s strong return, HiSilicon’s market share in high-end mobile SoC chips has reached 12%. As early as 2014, HiSilicon released the Kirin 910 chip, gradually catching up with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon series in performance. After several product iterations, the Kirin SoC chips now feature advanced SoC architecture, and in 2023, the Kirin 9000S chip was introduced in the Mate 60 series, becoming a leader in global mobile SoC chips.
Samsung has integrated its self-developed Exynos chips into Galaxy S/A series products, gaining a 13% market share. MediaTek’s Dimensity 9300 and 9400 SoC chips have captured an 11% market share.
According to iFinD financial data terminal, several A-share companies are involved in SoC chips, including: Amlogic, Rockchip, Guoxin Technology, NavInfo, Juchip Technology, Longsys, Chipone, Fuhang Micro, Nandstar, and Hengxuan Technology.
(This article was first published on May 16, 2025)
Li Quan
Investment Advisor License Number: S0930622070004
Fund Practitioner Number: A20211203001155
Disclaimer: This article is based on publicly available information and does not guarantee accuracy or timeliness, nor does it constitute investment advice; investing involves risks, and one should proceed with caution.