> must break even

Understand the spirit of this, but probably not true. I don't think Xiaomi, or any big tech company, needs to break even on their new model releases.

Chinese "companies" are not companies in the western sense, but more like government departments with capitalist styling to deceive the western audience.

From that point of view, they have as much money as they need. That's why there is no "VC", because Chinese government assumes that role.