Xiaomi

Lei Jun and seven co-founders established Xiaomi in Beijing. The company's first product was MIUI, a customized Android ROM that built a passionate fan community before the company ever sold hardware.

Xiaomi launched its first smartphone, the Mi 1, featuring flagship specifications at a near-cost price. The flash-sale model and fan-driven online-only sales strategy created massive demand and established Xiaomi's brand.

Xiaomi aggressively expanded into India, which quickly became its largest market outside China. By 2017, Xiaomi became the top-selling smartphone brand in India, and the company's global ambitions extended to Southeast Asia, Europe, and Latin America.

Xiaomi raised $1.1 billion at a $46 billion valuation, briefly becoming the world's most valuable privately-held technology startup. The company's rapid growth made it China's largest smartphone maker by 2014.

Xiaomi listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange under ticker 1810 at HK$17 per share, raising $4.7 billion. The IPO was the largest tech listing in Hong Kong in years and gave Xiaomi substantial capital for expansion and R&D.

Lei Jun announced Xiaomi would invest $10 billion over a decade to enter the electric vehicle business, calling it 'the most important decision of my life.' The Xiaomi Auto subsidiary was established to develop smart EVs.

Xiaomi surpassed Apple to become the world's second-largest smartphone manufacturer by quarterly sales volume, shipping 53 million units in Q3 2021. The company's success was driven by aggressive pricing, strong performance in India and China, and expansion into European markets. Xiaomi's rise reflected its effective strategy of offering premium features at mid-range prices through its efficient online-first distribution model.

Xiaomi unveiled HyperOS, a unified operating system designed to connect its smartphones, IoT devices, and electric vehicles. Marking a strategic pivot from its reliance on Android customization, HyperOS became the foundation of Xiaomi's 'Human x Car x Home' ecosystem.

Xiaomi began delivering the SU7 electric sedan, positioning it as a direct competitor to Tesla's Model 3 and Porsche Taycan. The SU7 received over 100,000 locked-in orders within weeks, making Xiaomi a serious contender in the EV market.

Xiaomi launched the YU7 mid-size electric SUV, its second EV model following the SU7 sedan. The YU7 delivered over 150,000 units within six months of launch, more than doubling the SU7's comparable period. Together with the SU7, Xiaomi's cumulative EV deliveries surpassed 410,000 in 2025 and 600,000 by February 2026, establishing Xiaomi Auto as a major force in China's NEV market. The SU7 first-generation ended production after 360,000 units, with a second-generation model announced for April 2026.

Xiaomi's electric vehicle division surpassed 600,000 cumulative deliveries in 22 months since its first delivery on April 3, 2024, making it one of the fastest production ramps in automotive history. The milestone was driven by the SU7 sedan and YU7 SUV, which alone exceeded 150,000 units within six months of launch. Xiaomi set a 2026 delivery target of 550,000 vehicles, following 411,837 deliveries in 2025.

Xiaomi officially unveiled HyperOS 4 in China, its next-generation operating system featuring a Liquid Glass design language inspired by iOS, a Rust programming language core for improved stability, and Super AI Assistant 2.0 powered by the MiMo large language model. The update delivers 40% smoother performance, offline AI capabilities, and 300% faster cross-device file transfers. Public beta testing began on August 14, with a global rollout expected in September 2026.

Xiaomi unveiled the XRING O3, its first flagship mobile processor manufactured on TSMC 3nm N3P process. The chip features an all-big-core Deca-core CPU design with a 4.05 GHz prime core and dual SME2 accelerators, scoring over 5.22 million on AnTuTu. It is the first mobile chip to support LPDDR6 RAM and will debut on the Xiaomi 18 Fold and Xiaomi Pad 9 Pro Max. Xiaomi also announced the O100 AI inference chip and D100 smart-driving chip, marking a major push to reduce reliance on Qualcomm and MediaTek.

Xiaomi's cumulative electric vehicle deliveries topped 800,000 units, roughly 29 months after the first SU7 sedan was delivered. The milestone came as Xiaomi prepared to launch the Sky Nomad extended-range SUV lineup, with its performance set to determine whether the company reaches its 550,000-vehicle annual delivery target.