Xiaomi, Oppo to use Qualcomm's newest mobile phone chips

Two fast-growing Chinese phone brands said on Tuesday that they will adopt Qualcomm Inc's newest 5G chip in their flagship devices early next year.

Xiaomi Corp and Oppo said they will use Qualcomm's Snapdragon 865 chip in devices they plan to launch in the first quarter of next year. The companies planned to announce the news at a Qualcomm conference being held in Hawaii.

Xiaomi and Oppo, both based in China, were the fourth and fifth biggest smartphone sellers in the world in the third quarter, according to research firm IDC. They have also become major Qualcomm customers, with both Xiaomi and Oppo's parent group each accounting for more than 10% of Qualcomm's $24.2 billion in revenue in its most recent fiscal year. Qualcomm's other major customers are Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd.

Qualcomm planned to disclose the full details of its newest mobile phone processors at the event in Hawaii. The chip will include features for artificial intelligence tasks such as identifying objects in photos stored on smartphones, as well as a modem for connecting to 5G networks, which are rolling out this year and next and are expected to be much faster than current 4G networks.