On 6 April 2010 Xiaomi was co-founded by Lei Jun and six others, In the first round of funding, institutional investors included Temasek Holdings, IDG Capital, Qiming Venture Partners, and Qualcomm.
On 16 August 2010, Xiaomi officially launched its first Android-based firmware MIUI. It resembles Samsung's TouchWiz and Apple's iOS.
The Xiaomi Mi 1 smartphone was announced in August 2011. The device had Xiaomi's MIU firmware along with Android installation. The first Xiaomi Mi 1 smartphone was then commercially appeared in Asia and East Asia technological markets.
In August 2012, following the first version of the smartphone, Xiaomi Corporation announced its new device called Xiaomi Mi 2 smartphone. It was improved from the previous version by updating the new firmware with the most updated Android Version.
On 5 September 2013, Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun announced plans to launch an Android-based 47-inch 3D-capable Smart TV, which will be assembled by Sony TV manufacturer Wistron Corporation of Taiwan. The company explained the choice to take advantage of Wistron's skill as a supplier of Sony.
In September 2013, Xiaomi announced its Mi 3 phone.
By October 2013 Xiaomi was the fifth-most-used smartphone brand in China.
In 2013 it sold 18.7 million smartphones.
In 2014 Xiaomi announced its expansion outside China, with its first international headquarters in Singapore. Future product launches and activities in the region will be set up there. Following Singapore, the company opened in Malaysia, Philippines, and India, and plans to enter Indonesia, Thailand, Russia, Turkey, Brazil and Mexico in the following months.
On 21 February 2014 Xiaomi's Redmi and Mi 3 phones were released in Singapore. The Xiaomi Mi 3 batches were sold out within 2 minutes of the opening day sale in Singapore.
On 17 March 2014, Redmi Note phablet was announced by Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun.
In April 2014 Xiaomi purchased the Internet domain mi.com for a record US$3.6 million, the most expensive domain name ever bought in China, replacing xiaomi.com as the official Xiaomi domain.
In March 2014, Xiaomi Store Australia (an unrelated business) began selling Xiaomi mobile phones online in Australia through its website, XiaomiStore.com.au. However, they traded for only a few months, as Xiaomi soon "requested" that the store be shut down on (or by) 25 July 2014. Shortly after sales were halted, the website itself was also taken down, on 7 August 2014. An industry commentator described the action by Xiaomi to get the Australian website closed down as unprecedented, saying, “I’ve never come across this [before]. It would have to be a strategic move.” At the time this left only one online vendor selling Xiaomi mobile phones into Australia, namely Yatango (formerly MobiCity), which was based in Hong Kong — although this business closed in late 2015.
In November 2014 Xiaomi said it would invest US$1 billion in television content building.
In December 2014 Xiaomi completed a round of equity financing led by Hong Kong-based technology fund All-Stars Investment Limited, a fund run by former Morgan Stanley analyst Richard Ji raising over US$1 billion, with a valuation of more than US$45 billion making it one of the most valuable private technology companies in the world.
The company sold over 60 million smartphones in 2014.
In April 2015 Xiaomi announced it would make its Mi devices available through two of India's major e-commerce sites and through offline retailers for the first time.
On 23 April 2015, Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun and VP Hugo Barra came together to announce a new smartphone named Mi 1s in India, the first phone to be launched in India before any other country. The Xiaomi Mi Band was also launched in the same event.
On 27 April 2015, it was reported Ratan Tata had acquired a stake in Xiaomi.
On 30 June 2015, Xiaomi announced its expansion into Brazil with the launch of locally manufactured Redmi 2; it is the first time the company assembled a smartphone outside of China.
On 24 February 2016, Xiaomi launched the Mi 5 smartphone.
On 9 March 2016, Xiaomi launched its Redmi Note 3 in India. It was a groundbreaking smartphone at the time in the budget segment and was well received by Indian customers. It made record sales on the year, and Xiaomi brand name continued to grow.
On 10 May 2016, Xiaomi launched the Mi Max.
In July 2016 Chinese artists as Liu Shishi, Wu Xiubo and Liu Haoran became the first ambassadors of Xiaomi's Redmi series in China.
In August 2016 Xiaomi entered Bangladesh via Solar Electro Bangladesh Limited.
Shortly after starting operations in Brazil the company left the country in the second half of 2016.
In September 2016 Xiaomi's cell phones became officially available in the European Union through their partnership with ABC Data.
On 20 February, Xiaomi officially launched in Pakistan and brought its Mi and Redmi Note lineup to the country.
On 19 April, Xiaomi launched Mi 6, its flagship phone at the time.
On 25 May, Xiaomi released Mi Max 2.
On 26 August, new MIUI v9 alongside Mi 5x has been released.
On 5 September Xiaomi released Mi A1, which is the first Android One smartphone under the slogan: Created by Xiaomi, Powered by Google. In the event key note Xiaomi stated they started working with Google for the Mi A1 Android One smartphone almost six months ago. An alternate version of the phone is also available with MIUI and is known as MI 5X.
On 7 November, Xiaomi started operating in Spain, making available the Mi A1 and Mi Mix 2 smartphones.
In Q3 2017, Xiaomi overtook Samsung to become the number one smartphone brand in India. Xiaomi has sold 9.2 million units during this period.
On 20 February, Xiaomi opened its first Mi Store in the Philippines.
On May 3, 2018, Xiaomi filed to go public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and aims to raise $10 billion in IPO which is expected to be the world's biggest IPO raise since 2014, Xiaomi also announced in partnership with 3 (telecommunications) to sell smartphones in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Austria, Denmark, and Sweden.
On 22 May 2018, Xiaomi will open, in Paris, its first French store.
Xiaomi released Mi Max 3.
In March 2019, Xiaomi partnering with AMTD obtained one of the eight virtual bank licenses in Hong Kong. The company also has introduced Xiaomi Mi 9 phone which has a fingerprint scanner in its display. It was the second phone of the brand with this technology available on the market.
Xiaomi released Mi MIX 3 5G.
In March 2018, at China's annual legislative session in Beijing, Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun announced that Xiaomi has "always been considering entering the US market" and will launch in the US smartphone market by late 2018 or early 2019. Xiaomi already sells assorted items in the US such as power banks and Bluetooth speakers.
Xiaomi released Mi MIX Fold.
In October 2020, Xiaomi surpassed Apple as the third-largest smartphone maker in the world by shipment volume, shipping 46.2 million handsets in Q3 2020.
On 30 March 2021, Xiaomi announced that they will invest US$10 billion in new electric vehicles for the next ten years.
On 31 March 2021, Xiaomi announced a new logo for the company, designed by Kenya Hara.
In July 2021, Xiaomi surpassed Apple, making Xiaomi the second-largest smartphone maker in the world according to Canalys. Later that month, Counterpoint announced that Xiaomi also surpassed Apple for the first time in Europe, making them the second-largest in Europe as well.