Xiaomi unveils new sport SUV, continues full ecosystem strategy

Xiaomi launched the YU7 GT, a sports car-grade SUV, the YU7 GT on Thursday, as the tech heavyweight doubles down on its ambitious "human-car-home" ecosystem.

The move came as Xiaomi founder and CEO Lei Jun announced that the company will invest at least 200 billion yuan ($27.6 billion) in research and development over the next five years.

Lei revealed in an interview that Xiaomi has already spent 105.5 billion yuan on R&D over the past five years, achieving breakthroughs in chips, large language models, smart manufacturing, and robotics.

"Our strategy is clear – with chips, OS, and AI as core technologies, we support the full ecosystem of smart terminals," he said. "Give Xiaomi another five years. The company will climb a much bigger ladder."

The YU7 GT, positioned as a sports car-level SUV, is the first result of collaboration between Xiaomi's Chinese and European auto teams, said Hu Zhengnan, vice president of Xiaomi Group and CTO of Xiaomi's auto division, said.

Lei noted that as of April 30, the base YU7 model logged 232,000 deliveries in just 10 months, twice surpassing the Tesla Model Y in monthly sales.

Song Gang, former vice president of manufacturing at Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory, has joined Xiaomi as vice president of its auto division, focusing on smart manufacturing.

Song said his team is working to boost production and supply chain efficiency to accelerate capacity ramp-up.

On rising memory chip costs, Lei warned that prices have surged several times over the past year – TV memory is up 10-fold – and will continue rising for the next two years, hitting smartphones the hardest. "If you plan to upgrade your phone in the next year, the sooner, the better," he said, adding that premium products will see relatively less impact.

"Dig deep, stock up grain – with another 200 billion yuan in core tech R&D, I believe five years from now, Xiaomi will climb an even bigger ladder," Lei said.