Xiaomi Will ‘Officially Unveil’ Its Custom 3nm Chipset Next Year, With A Report Stating That The Silicon Will Be Positioned To Replace Qualcomm And MediaTek

Android smartphone makers have typically relied on Qualcomm and MediaTek for their ‘off the shelf’ chipsets, with the Snapdragon 8 Elite and Dimensity 9400 said to be included in the majority of high-end releases this year and the next. Xiaomi, for the most part, will also rely on the two aforementioned companies, but it is likely starting to realize that it will only get more expensive for it to maintain dependency on these partners going forward, with the only way to improve profitability is to jumpstart its custom chipset endeavors. According to the latest report, Xiaomi is said to officially launch its 3nm silicon next year, which should make the competition pretty nervous.

No concrete launch timeline has been provided, and based on the current situation, Xiaomi will likely leverage one of TSMC’s 3nm variants for its custom chipset

We previously reported in October that Xiaomi had completed the tape-out of its first 3nm chipset, meaning that the only step remaining was to find a foundry partner to put the design into mass production. However, there was no word on when the company would officially launch the in-house silicon, but according to DigiTimes, the unveiling will happen sometime next year. The paywalled report does not mention which quarter the announcement will happen, but in light of this update, we have more questions to finish the puzzle.

TSMC recently notified its Chinese customers through email that they would no longer receive 7nm chip shipments, with the order apparently coming from the U.S. Given the innumerable problems Samsung is facing in raising the yield of its 3nm GAA technology, Xiaomi being a firm of Chinese origin only has TSMC left to partner with to mass produce wafers. However, would this turn of events result in trade sanctions placed on Xiaomi? It is possible because a slew of Chinese companies, including Huawei, can use Xiaomi as a proxy to obtain this cutting-edge technology.

Of course, Xiaomi’s decision to mass produce its first 3nm SoC will fall under intense scrutiny, with the possibility being that the Trump administration forces the Chinese entity to obtain a license in order for it to receive chip shipments from TSMC. Back in August, it was reported that Xiaomi would launch a custom silicon on TSMC’s 4nm N4P process in H1 2025, and it would deliver performance equivalent to Qualcomm’s older Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. Of course, we will provide future updates on the latest developments, but you have to admit that this revelation should make for a very interesting turn of events next year.

News Source: DigiTimes