Xiaomi plans annual smartphone chip releases as humanoid robots test EV factory roles

China’s Xiaomi says it wants a new smartphone processor every year. President Lu Weibing said the plan is currently a yearly upgrade cycle.

Lu spoke Tuesday in Barcelona on the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress trade show. He also said Xiaomi is getting ready to launch an AI assistant for users outside China as it lines up plans to sell its electric vehicles abroad.

Xiaomi to release a new phone chip each year

Last year Xiaomi launched the XRing O1. It is a system-on-chip built on a 3 nanometer manufacturing process. The chip is the main engine inside a phone, and only a few phone makers design this part themselves.

Apple uses its A series chips. Samsung uses its Exynos brand. Many other phone brands buy chips from Qualcomm or MediaTek instead of building them.

“This is our first chip product. Going forward, we should most likely release a yearly upgrade,” Lu said.

It means Xiaomi would match the annual pace Apple usually follows with new A chips. Lu said the next chip will appear first in a device launching this year in China, then later in phones Xiaomi sells overseas.

The timeline sounds faster than earlier guidance. Xiaomi vice president Xu Fei had reportedly said in September that the company could not promise a new chip every year.

Xiaomi says a custom chip lets it connect hardware and software more tightly than rivals that rely on outside silicon. The company runs HyperOS, its own mobile operating system based on Android, and it wants the chip roadmap to line up with that software plan.

Xiaomi will deploy AI agents and test humanoid robots

In China, Xiaomi phones already ship with an AI assistant called Xiao AI. That assistant runs on AI models Xiaomi built in-house, and it is mainly aimed at Xiaomi products in the China market.

Lu said the company is preparing an international AI assistant. He tied that rollout to Xiaomi’s overseas EV launch plan. Xiaomi has said before that Europe could see its electric vehicles in 2027.

“When our cars go to the international markets, you will see our AI agents come along with it,” Lu said.

Lu said Xiaomi will likely partner with Google and use Gemini models for the overseas assistant, alongside Xiaomi’s own models. He said the company wants the same assistant to work across smartphones and cars.

“It will be in China markets first, but ultimately, we would want to introduce them to overseas markets,” he added.

On the factory side, Lu said Xiaomi has already trialed humanoid robots inside its electric vehicle production plants. The goal is to raise productivity in its factories.

Lu said two humanoid robots can complete 90% of the work in three hours. He said they can handle tasks such as installing nuts and moving materials.

“To integrate robots into our production lines, the biggest challenge is for them to keep up with the pace,” Lu said. “In Xiaomi’s car factory, every 76 seconds, a new car gets off the assembly line. The two humanoid robots are able to keep up our pace.”

Lu said factory robot deployment is a key focus. He said future humanoid robots could replace humans for certain jobs and could also do work humans cannot do.

Xiaomi first showed its CyberOne humanoid robot in 2022. The company is not selling CyberOne right now.

Lu said the production-line robot work is still early. “The robots in our production lines weren’t doing an official job, more like the interns.”

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