Technology / Semiconductor / Internet Research

Nicolas Baratte

Nicolas Baratte has been a financial analyst since 2000, covering the Semiconductor sector and Global Technology. Nicolas has worked on the sell-side for JPMorgan, CLSA. On the buy-side for a Tiger fund and Prudential. Nicolas has covered semiconductors, Asian hardware and components, and the Global Tech supply chain. Nicolas lives mostly in Taiwan, sometimes in France and is in New York regularly.

Equity Bottom-Up

<ul>
<li>Xiaomi has its own smartphone chip! It's the 4th announcement (2014, 2017, 2021, 2025)? Yes it is. Why it didn’t succeed before, will it work out now? It won’t.</li>
<li>Mobile chip development costs US$800m-1bn, to be amortized on Xiaomi’s small volumes. The economics don’t work. It won’t give Xiaomi any performance / differentiation benefits.  </li>
<li>Why now? Computex was ongoing in Taipei with 10 big-size CEOs, Nvidia, AMD, Qualcomm, Mediatek, TSMC… maybe they felt lonely in Beijing? If you bought Xiaomi, please sell.</li>
</ul>


Xiaomi has its own smartphone chip! It's the 4th announcement (2014, 2017, 2021, 2025)? Yes it is. Why it didn’t succeed before, will it work out now? It won’t.
Mobile chip development costs US$800m-1bn, to be amortized on Xiaomi’s small volumes. The economics don’t work. It won’t give Xiaomi any performance / differentiation benefits.  
Why now? Computex was ongoing in Taipei with 10 big-size CEOs, Nvidia, AMD, Qualcomm, Mediatek, TSMC… maybe they felt lonely in Beijing? If you bought Xiaomi, please sell.


TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing) (2330 TT)

TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing)

Xiaomi’s Own Mobile Chip Fairytale Is Back