<p>Increasing the silicon content of cold rolled non-oriented electrical steel (NOES) sheets through hot dipping and diffusion annealing is a promising technique to produce high silicon (6.5 wt% Si) electrical steel as it avoids direct cold rolling of the very brittle electrical steel with high silicon. In this study, the evolution of microstructure and texture in high silicon NOES processed by hot dipping and diffusion annealing was investigated. It was demonstrated that by finishing hot rolling of 3.5 wt% Si NOES at ~ 950&#xa0;°C, different textures from conventionally hot-rolled NOES formed, e.g., {110}&lt;110&gt; (rotated Goss) and {221}&lt;110&gt;. By increasing the number of cold rolling passes (40 passes) and thus reducing the deformation per pass, these textures are retained or strengthened, which become the main textures after hot dipping. Final diffusion annealing results in significantly different textures from those after conventional rolling and annealing, i.e., &lt;110&gt;//RD (rolling direction) and &lt;111&gt;//ND (normal direction) fibers are eliminated, and cube, Goss, or rotated Goss texture is produced. The formation mechanisms of these textures are discussed, and it is shown that the absence of in-grain shear banding at high temperatures (~ 950&#xa0;°C) during hot rolling has resulted in the retaining of the {110}&lt;110&gt; and {221}&lt;110&gt; grains which have high Taylor factors and exhibit high resistance to deformation (hard orientations). The small thickness reduction per pass (a total of 40 passes) during cold rolling significantly reduces the formation of shear bands and substructures in these grains (different from conventional NOES processing), which remain as the last grains to recrystallize during hot dipping and diffusion annealing, leading to different recrystallization textures from conventional NOES.</p>