Xiaomi has announced it will invest $10 billion to develop a new electric vehicle business.
The Chinese company on Tuesday said the investment would entail setting up a new wholly-owned subsidiary that will receive an initial investment of 10 billion yuan.
The remaining amount will then be spent over the next 10 years, Xiaomi said.
Xiaomi founder and CEO Lei Jun said the company decided to make the foray into the electric vehicles market as it believes smart electric vehicles are the “broadest race track in the next decade”.
“It is an inseparable and crucial part that forms the smart ecosystem; it is an inevitable choice to expand the integrated ecosystem of AIoT smart living; it is also the only path for us to fulfil the vision of the company and to bring a better life to everyone through technology,” he said in an open letter.
“The decision was made after numerous rounds of deliberation among all our partners, and this will be the final major entrepreneurial project of my life. I am willing to put all my personal reputation on the line and fight for the future of our smart electric vehicle.”
Prior to making this decision, Jun claimed that the company conducted 85 meetings with over 200 industry experts, four internal management debates, and two board meetings.
Jun will serve as the CEO of the new electric vehicle subsidiary.
On the same day, Xiaomi, best known for its smartphones, also released its first foldable smartphone, the Mi Mix Fold, and updated its logo.
The Mi Mix Fold sports an 8-inch QHD flexible internal display and a 6.52-inch external display, which Xiaomi claimed is the largest foldable display on any smartphone to date.
Xiaomi added that the launch of its first foldable device comes with the debut of the Surge C1 processor, which is a Xiaomi-developed image processing chip.
According to Xiaomi, the new chip underwent two years of development and 140 million yuan in R&D investment. The chip will power two cameras: A 108MP pixel main camera and a 13MP ultra-wide angle camera.
Rounding out the foldable device’s specs, the Mi Mix Fold has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor, quad-speaker setup, a 5,020mAh battery, and 67W fast-charging support.
Looking at the new logo, Xiaomi made minor changes, using new typography for “Mi” and adding the company’s name beneath the logo. The corners of the squared logo are also softer and rounder compared to the previous logo.
It’s been a big week of announcements for Xiaomi, with the company unveiling a slew of smart devices yesterday, including its flagship smartphone, the Mi 11 Ultra.
The Mi 11 Ultra is similar to the already released Mi 11, but it has a different new camera system, which consists of a triple-camera setup and an AMOLED screen housed inside a camera bump.
The 1.1-inch AMOLED display can be used as a selfie viewfinder, an always-on display, or a notification window, Xiaomi said.
