# xiaomi

Xiaomi is a Chinese multinational technology company headquartered in Beijing, known for consumer electronics, software, and electric vehicles, and ranked as a top global smartphone seller as of 2025.

Xiaomi (Chinese: 小米; pinyin: Xiǎomǐ) is a Chinese multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Beijing, China. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and electric vehicles. As of 2025, it is the third-largest smartphone seller globally, behind [Apple](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/apple) and [Samsung](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/samsung-electronics), with most devices running on its Xiaomi HyperOS (formerly MIUI) operating system. The company reported 754.1 million global monthly active users as of December 2025 and is ranked 232nd on the Fortune Global 500, making it the youngest company on that list. It has frequently been called the "Apple of China."

Founded in 2010, Xiaomi initially sold products exclusively online but later expanded into physical retail. The company grew rapidly to become the largest smartphone seller in China by 2014 and has since diversified into a wide range of consumer electronics, including wearables, televisions, air purifiers, and electric vehicles. Its business model emphasizes keeping prices close to manufacturing and bill of materials costs, often maintaining products in the market for about 18 months, which is longer than most smartphone competitors, while using inventory optimization and flash sales to manage supply.

## Founding and Early Years

Xiaomi was co-founded on 6 April 2010 in Beijing by Lei Jun, who had previously worked as an executive at Kingsoft and helped found Joyo.com (sold to [Amazon](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/amazon-web-services) for $75 million in 2004), along with six associates: Lin Bin, vice president of the Google China Institute of Engineering; Zhou Guangping, senior director of the Motorola Beijing R&D center; Liu De, department chair of Industrial Design at the University of Science and Technology Beijing; Li Wanqiang, general manager of Kingsoft Dictionary; Huang Jangji, principal development manager; and Hong Feng, senior product manager for Google China. Lei Jun was reportedly dissatisfied with existing mobile phone offerings and believed he could build a superior product.

The company launched its first Android-based firmware, MIUI, on 16 August 2010, and raised $41 million that same year in a Series A round. The first smartphone, the Xiaomi Mi 1, debuted in August 2011, running MIUI alongside a standard Android installation. By December 2011, a Series B round brought $90 million, followed by a $216 million Series C round in June 2012 at a $4 billion valuation, with participants such as Temasek Holdings, IDG Capital, Qiming Venture Partners, and [Qualcomm](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/qualcomm). In 2013, Xiaomi sold 18.7 million smartphones, and by October it had become the fifth most used smartphone brand in China.

## Global Expansion and Growth

Xiaomi began expanding internationally in February 2014, establishing an international headquarters in Singapore. That April, it purchased the domain name mi.com for a record US$3.6 million, the highest price ever paid for a domain in China at the time, replacing xiaomi.com as its primary web address. In December 2014, the company raised US$1.1 billion at a valuation of over US$45 billion, making it one of the most valuable private technology firms in the world; the round was led by All-Stars Investment Limited. Sales that year exceeded 60 million smartphones, with 94% of revenue coming from mobile phones.

In 2015, April, Ratan Tata acquired a stake in Xiaomi. The company expanded into Brazil in the second half of 2015 with the locally assembled Redmi 2, but exited that market in a bit. In 2016, Xiaomi bought patents from [Microsoft](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/microsoft) in June and in September launched sales in the European Union through a partnership with ABC Data. Also in 2016, Xiaomi launched the Mi Mix (October) powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 821, and the Mi Robot vacuum was released under Roborock, which Xiaomi had acquired a 24.7% stake in during September 2014. In March 2017, plans were announced for a second Indian manufacturing unit with Foxconn; and in July, the company entered a patent licensing agreement with Nokia.

In 2017, Xiaomi opened Mi Stores in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, with the first EU store in Athens, Greece, during October. That same period, in Q3, it overtook Samsung to become the largest smartphone brand in India with 9.2 million units sold. In November, sales commenced in Spain, marking its entry into Western Europe. In April 2018, Xiaomi announced the Black Shark smartphone gaming brand, equipped with fram 6GB of RAM and a Snapdragon 845 SoC, priced at $508.

## Products and AI Ecosystem

Xiaomi has developed a wide range of consumer electronics, including smartphones, wearables, televisions, flashlights, unmanned aerial vehicles, and air purifiers, integrated through its Internet of things and Xiaomi Smart Home product ecosystems. The company's [large language model](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/large-language-model) research is not heavily publicized, but its recognition on leaderboards such as LMArena indicates active work in [artificial intelligence](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/artificial-intelligence). This training likely involves both [machine-learning](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/machine-learning) and [deep learning](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/deep-learning) techniques, aligning with industry trends in [generative AI](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/generative-ai). Xiaomi's AI efforts complement its smart home products and software, though specific models and releases are less prominent than those of specialized AI labs like [OpenAI](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/openai) or [Google DeepMind](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/google-deepmind).

## Financial Performance and Market Position

By 2020, Xiaomi sold 149.4 million smartphones, and MIUI surpassed 500 million monthly active users. As of August 2024, it was the second-largest smartphone seller globally, holding about 12% market share according to Counterpoint, and by 2025 it had moved to third place, behind Apple and Samsung. The company keeps prices low by cycling products quickly and using flash sales to reduce inventory. Throughout its growth, it has been recognized as a major player in consumer tech, often compared to Apple influence in China, while also developing hardware that bridges software, services, and AI.

## Sources and References

This article is based on publicly available information as of early 2025, including reports from Counterpoint and the Fortune Global 500 list. However, specific details about Xiaomi's internal AI research division are not widely discussed in official English sources, so the AI-related claims rely on indirect evidence like leaderboard appearances.

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Source: https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/xiaomi
License: CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)
Last updated: 2026-09-08T06:09:32.016053+00:00