Xiaomi Races to Build a €24 Billion Future as Its Shares Tumble 60%

Xiaomi plans €24bn R&D by 2030, boosting AI and EV push, as stock languishes 60% below high amid price wars and rising chip costs.

The disconnect between a company’s operational ambitions and its market valuation can sometimes feel like two different worlds. For Xiaomi, that gap has become a chasm. The Chinese tech giant is laying out plans to pump €24 billion into research and development by 2030, with a heavy focus on artificial intelligence and European expansion, even as its stock languishes more than 60% below its 52-week high.

On the technology front, Xiaomi is doubling down on the product lineup that built its reputation. Leaks surrounding the upcoming flagship — likely called the Xiaomi 18 Pro Max — point to a silicon-carbon battery with a capacity of over 8,000 milliampere-hours, nearly double current standards. A dual-camera system featuring Leica optics and a two-nanometre processor are also said to be in the works. The handset is expected to launch in China during autumn 2026, with a German rollout not anticipated until late that year. Cheaper variants of the Xiaomi 18 have also been rumoured, though the company has yet to confirm any details.

Beyond smartphones, Xiaomi is accelerating its electric-vehicle push. In May it sold nearly 33,000 units of its EV models, and a new material breakthrough could give it a competitive edge in Europe. The company has unveiled Titan Alloy 2.0, a body-structure alloy made entirely from recycled aluminium that slashes the carbon footprint of the relevant components by 93% — equivalent to saving 800 kilograms of greenhouse gases per vehicle. That environmental stamp matters for exports: the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism will directly reward lower embedded emissions, improving Xiaomi’s cost position against rivals like BYD.

Yet the EV market is no picnic. A brutal price war in China and rapidly growing Chinese imports into Europe are squeezing margins across the board. Meanwhile, traditional smartphone margins face a separate threat. Memory-chip prices are climbing: DRAM modules could rise 20% in the third quarter, and flash memory for phones may see even steeper increases. Those higher component costs eat directly into Xiaomi’s hardware profitability.

The company is also spending heavily on artificial intelligence, allocating €7.4 billion of its total R&D budget to AI development centres by 2028. That investment feeds into Xiaomi’s broader “smart ecosystem” strategy, which already connects over one billion devices globally. On the payments side, a new partnership with fintech firm Adyen will streamline transactions across 18 markets, including Japan and the European Union.

All of this operational news, however, has done little to lift the share price. The stock slipped another 2.25% on Tuesday to €2.59, extending a year-to-date decline of more than 42%. The shares now trade roughly 34% below their 200-day moving average, and the intraday low — hit in late June at €2.34 — remains uncomfortably close. For investors, the question is whether a strong showing at the IFA trade fair in Berlin this September, where Xiaomi plans to showcase its latest connected devices, can provide the catalyst that the stock so clearly needs.