During Xiaomi's developer conference, Lei Jun, chairman of Xiaomi, revealed that the company currently has a R&D team of over 10,000 people, and it plans to hire 5,000 additional engineers in 2021.

Lei said that Xiaomi will gradually increase investments in R&D and focus on breakthroughs in hardcore technologies, and talent is the source of innovation.

He revealed that 2,252 new employees joined Xiaomi in 2020 and its R&D team currently has over 10,000 people. In 2021, the company plans to hire 5,000 additional engineers. The recruitment will cover ten major sectors, including camera imaging technology, 5G/6G communication standard technology, screen display technology, big data and cloud service technology, fast charging and wireless charging technology, audio technology, IoT platform and connection technology, informatization and process management system technology, AI and voice intelligent interactive technology, and intelligent manufacturing equipment and system integration technology.

Lei also said that Xiaomi's camera department has a team of nearly 1,000 people, and it has R&D centers in nine cities, including Beijing, Tokyo, Paris and San Diego.

In April 2016, Xiaomi smartphone business established a core components department, and the camera unit was under this department. In 2018, the camera unit was adjusted and became a first-level department.