Rumor: Xiaomi buys majority stake in mobile processor maker

According to a rumor from China, Xiaomi would like to take a majority stake in Leadcore, a maker of mobile socs. With the acquisition, Xiaomi may want to work on its own mobile socs for its smartphones and tablets.

Xiaomi, according to a rumor from the usually reliable CNBeta, would like a 51 percent stake in Leadcore, which would give it a majority of the shares and thus control. Leadcore is currently a subsidiary of Datang, a large Chinese telecom company with several branches and makes socs for cheaper hardware. The current socs have Cortex A7 processor cores and ARM Mali 400 GPUs on board.

With the move, Xiaomi would like more control over the choices in mobile socs. This would allow it, among other things, to better match its software to the hardware. If Xiaomi really wanted to design its own mobile socs, the company would have to acquire Leadcore in its entirety. Apple did that, among other things, PA Semi, after which it started making the line of its own Apple Ax-socs for iPhones and iPads. In addition to Apple, Samsung, LG and Huawei also design their own socs.

The Chinese manufacturer is currently one of the largest smartphone makers in the world; in any case, it has to tolerate Apple and Samsung and competes with Lenovo, LG and Huawei for third place in the global smartphone market. Xiaomi sells its devices in some Asian countries.