Huawei's Kirin chip is a representative of domestic mobile phone chips, which once competed with Qualcomm Snapdragon chips in terms of performance, power consumption, and AI. However, due to the sanctions imposed by the United States, the production of Huawei's Kirin chips has been severely affected, resulting in a significant decline in the market share of Huawei's mobile phones. However, it has recently been reported that Huawei's Kirin chip has successfully broken through the blockade in the United States, resumed production, and will launch a new generation of Kirin 9000s chips in 2024. This is a major positive for the development of Huawei and domestic mobile phone chips.
So, what does the return of Huawei's Kirin chip mean for Xiaomi, another domestic mobile phone brand? Xiaomi has always been a loyal user of Qualcomm Snapdragon chips, but it has also tried to develop its own mobile phone chips. In 2017, Xiaomi released its first self-developed chip, the surging S1, which was mounted on the Xiaomi 5C mobile phone, but the performance and market response were not ideal. In 2021, Xiaomi launched the surging S2 chip, which focuses on AI and image processing, but it is only used in the Xiaomi Watch S3 and is not applied to mobile phones. At present, it is unknown whether Xiaomi will continue to develop mobile phone chips, and whether it will launch the surging S3 chip.
It is rumored that the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8Gen4 chip will use the self-developed Oryon architecture, rather than the solution based on the ARM public architecture. This means that Qualcomm will achieve greater autonomy and innovation in the field of mobile phone chips, which may also lead to higher performance and efficiency. So, will Qualcomm license the existing mobile phone SoC solution based on the ARM public architecture to Xiaomi to develop the "surging S3" chip?
The answer to this question may not be optimistic. First of all, Qualcomm, as the world's largest mobile phone chip manufacturer, has its own brand and market advantages, and it is unlikely that it will easily give up the golden sign of Snapdragon or license it to other manufacturers. Secondly, Xiaomi, as an important customer of Qualcomm and a competitor of Huawei, may be countered by Huawei or cause dissatisfaction in the United States if it uses Qualcomm's authorized scheme. Finally, if Xiaomi wants to truly realize the independent research and development of chips, it still needs to invest a lot of manpower, material and financial resources, as well as face challenges in technology, market, law and other aspects, which may not be a cost-effective choice for Xiaomi.
To sum up, the return of Huawei's Kirin chip may not have much impact on Xiaomi's chip research and development. Xiaomi will continue to maintain a good cooperative relationship with Qualcomm, and at the same time, it will also launch its own chip products at the right time, but not necessarily the surging S3. Qualcomm is also unlikely to help Xiaomi develop a mobile phone SoC, but will focus on the development and promotion of its own Snapdragon 8 Gen4 chip. Between the two, there is both cooperation and competition, but more than that, there is mutual respect and understanding. Does Qualcomm help Xiaomi develop a mobile phone SoC