On the evening of September 25, Xiaomi founder and CEO Lei Jun took the stage for his sixth annual keynote, titled simply: "Change." But behind the polished presentation was the story of a company that nearly walked away from one of the most defining — and divisive — decisions in its history: whether to build its own smartphone chips, or abandon the dream for good.
The 2025 generation of flagship smartphone chips will mark the final run for 3nm processors — closing a chapter in semiconductor miniaturization and opening a new phase in mobile computing defined less by raw speed and more by on-device artificial intelligence.
