Chinese electronics giant Xiaomi Corp will invest more than 50 billion yuan ($7.18 billion) in artificial intelligence and fifth generation internet technologies over the next five years, Xiaomi founder and CEO Lei Jun said in a letter posted on the company's blog on Thursday.
"We need to turn our continuous advantage we have in AIoT and intelligent life into absolute victory in intelligent full scene, and completely cement our king status in the smart era," Lei said, using the acronym for artificial intelligence of things, a reference to a combination of AI and internet technologies.
The announced investment increases Xiaomi's pledge made last year to invest 10 billion yuan over five years in an "All in AIoT" strategy.
The Beijing-based company started as an affordable cellphone maker but its internet-enabled products now include smart TVs and rice-cookers.
Lei announced in October the company planned to launch more than 10 5G phone models in 2020.
Xiaomi, which entered Turkmenistan market at the end of 2016, is the fourth largest global smartphone manufacturer with 7.79% share in the world market and the second most popular phone brand in Turkmenistan with an indicator of 11.71%.
More than 66% of mobile device users in Turkmenistan currently hold Samsung smartphones, while 5.18% of the users own iPhone.
