Xiaomi planning to launch smartphones with in-house processors

It will be the company’s second attempt to make its own custom chips.

Chinese company Xiaomi is reportedly developing its own smartphone chip, which might be launched as soon as the first half of next year.

The move will allow Xiaomi to be more self-sufficient and stand out in the Android ecosystem, which Qualcomm and MediaTek dominate.

Currently, Xiaomi smartphones use chips from both of these companies.

According to a Bloomberg report, which broke the story citing sources, mass production is scheduled for next year.

Xiaomi already made its own Surge S1 chips, which powered the 2017 Xiaomi Mi 5c. However, a few years later, the company abandoned in-house semiconductors.

Currently, only Apple and Google consistently use in-house chips in their smartphones. Samsung manufactures some models with its Exynos chips but often relies on Qualcomm, too.

One advantage of custom chips is that they enable companies to better optimize software for specific needs.

Google Tensor chips, for example, allow the company to better equip devices with machine learning capabilities and AI features, though the processors lag behind Qualcomm in overall performance.

Meanwhile, Apple's chips, be it the A-series for smartphones and tablets or the M-series for MacBooks, often top benchmark lists.