China’s Xiaomi says returns from AI investments ‘far exceed expectations’

Xiaomi’s smart EV, AI and other new initiatives turned a profit for the first time in the third quarter

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A Xiaomi SU7 Ultra electric vehicle is displayed during a media day for the Shanghai Auto Show, April 23, 2025. Photo: Reuters

Published: 6:00pm, 5 Dec 2025

Chinese tech firm Xiaomi reaped returns from its artificial intelligence spending in 2025 that “far exceeded expectations”, the company’s president Lu Weibing said in a recorded video posted on Chinese social media platform Douyin.

Lu said the Beijing-based company was pivoting to embodied AI after heavy investment in general AI over the past few quarters. The Beijing-based company’s efforts to apply AI in electric vehicles (EVs) and robotics are similar to Elon Musk’s plan of using the advanced technology in Tesla cars and Optimus humanoids.

“Our progress in AI large models and applications has far exceeded our expectations,” Lu said on Wednesday, adding that the company believed the deep integration of AI with the physical world represented the next generation of intelligent technology.

The smartphone and EV maker launched its first AI model, MiMo, in April. It recently open-sourced MiMo-Embodied, a model that demonstrated “state-of-the-art performance in both autonomous driving and embodied AI tasks”, according to Xiaomi.

Customers try Xiaomi 17 series smartphones at a company store in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, on September 27, 2025. Photo: VCG via Getty Images

China has seen a surge of interest in the adoption of AI in the EV sector. Xiaomi debuted its premium SU7 Ultra in February, integrating the company’s Hyper-Autonomous Driving technology, a smart driving system.

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