There is no denying the fact that China took up the technology challenge quite some time back to give the west a run for its money in the area of cutting technology. Unlike India, there is no sound and fury, announcements or proclamations for a technology milestone to be achieved. The projects start; gigantic, with vision to reach the skies, produce the best in the world, shattering the status quo for good. When accomplished and product is ready to shipped or launched globally, only then it is brought to the public domain.
The launch of DeepSeek model in Jan has already redefined what LLM is and means what would be the trajectory of the future LLM model. The next model of DeepSeek is already. Now again it has done it. In semiconductors where China was supposed to be years behind, nobody knew what was brewing up. The latest news is that Xiomi has developed a chip so powerful that even the Chinese government has praised it. It is for sure the shifting power dynamics in technology. What has Xiaomi done? It has introduced its high end processor, the Xring 01.
Xring 01 is designed to challenge industry leaders like Qualcomm and Apple. The chip in question really pushes the technical boundaries. Additionally, the government’s unusual public endorsement highlights the chip’s significance beyond commercial ambitions. Now all seems magic but nothing has happened the way and possibly it can never happen that way. Xring 01 represents the culmination of four years of hard and intensive work with a clear cut purpose. The project has drawn on the expertise of more than 2,500 engineers and a budget of approximately 1.67 billion euros. Xiaomi CEO described the processor as “the fruit of four years of development.”
He has already announced it as the beginning of a larger project, clearly stating his ambitions in the days to come. The company intends to invest additional 6 billion euros over the next decade to further its semiconductor ambitions. The chip is already being integrated into Xiaomi’s flagship devices, making its designs clear to move in the direction of establishing a new family of proprietary processors. It is being manufactured by Taiwan’s TSMC using a 3-nanometer process, same foundry and technology employed by Apple. Benchmark tests place Xring 01 on par or exceeding the capabilities of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite and Apple’s A18 Pro.
THE CUTTING EDGE CHIP IS THE PRODUCT OF AN ONGOING GEOPOLITICAL FRICTION, BESIDES BEING A HUGE ENGINEERING FEAT.
Sanjay Sahay
Have a nice evening.