Its ranking among the 500 largest global companies jumped 84 places to 338th.

Lei Jun, founder, chairman and CEO of the Chinese company said: “Compared to our past achievements, I'm more focused on our potential growth. Xiaomi is still a very young yet ambitious company, full of motivation… and we will achieve a much more outstanding record in the Fortune Global 500 list next year.”

Xiaomi's revenues were worth RMB245.9 billion (US$38 billion) last year.

In the first quarter of 2021 they were RMB76.9 billion ($11.8 billion), an increase of 54.7 per cent year-on-year, while profit was RMB6.1 billion ($943 million), an increase of 163.8 per cent.

This growth is attributable to Xiaomi's expanding presence in the high-end smartphone market, rapid growth in international markets and development of new retail businesses.

Its physical retail network is expanding rapidly across the globe.

It has continued to invest in R&D and talent, creating new reward structures for the former and initiating the second phase of its smart factory project.

Besides leading the smartphone, AIoT and smart manufacturing segments, the company has also entered the smart electric vehicle market.

In March it announced plans to set up a wholly-owned subsidiary in the smart electric vehicle business led by Lei with a total investment over the next 10 years of $10 billion. — VNS