Once upon a time, Huawei’s Kirin chips surged forward, with the Kirin 950 boasting exceptional performance and efficiency, helping Huawei enter the top tier of global mobile chip manufacturers; the Kirin 970 pioneered AI at the edge, leading the technological frontier; and the Kirin 990 5G allowed consumers to experience lightning-fast 5G connectivity.
However, in 2019, the ruthless sanctions imposed by the United States struck Huawei’s chip ambitions hard, leaving the Kirin chips in a prolonged and dark winter. After that, Huawei refrained from mentioning specific processor models during press conferences, and 5G signals disappeared for a time, leaving the industry in a state of regret.
But Huawei is not one to easily admit defeat. After countless days and nights of hard work and effort, and with the dedication and sweat of its R&D personnel, today, four years later, the dawn has finally broken through the heavy clouds.
On September 4, 2025, at the extraordinary Mate XTs launch event in Shenzhen, Huawei shone brightly. Huawei’s Executive Director and Chairman of the Terminal BG, Yu Chengdong, announced with a confident smile: the all-new tri-fold Mate XTs extraordinary master is equipped with the Kirin 9020 chip! Instantly, the entire tech community erupted.
The Kirin 9020, currently Huawei’s most powerful mobile chip, makes a triumphant return after four years of dormancy!
The Kirin 9020 CPU consists of 1×2.5GHz large core + 3×2.15GHz medium cores + 4×1.6GHz small cores, integrated with the Maleoon 920 GPU, with all cores self-developed, showcasing outstanding performance.
Paired with the HarmonyOS 5 system, the overall performance has increased by 36%, delivering an unprecedented smooth experience. Moreover, it is the industry’s first SoC compliant with the 5G-A standard, elevating 5G communication technology to new heights.
Yu Chengdong’s public announcement of the Kirin 9020 undoubtedly signals to the world that Huawei’s chips have reached a stage of self-sufficiency, completely bidding farewell to the difficult situation of the past few years of “hiding and keeping secrets.”
Behind this glory, a name quietly emerges: New Kailai.
New Kailai, a semiconductor equipment company established in 2021, has emerged as a dark horse in the tech field, shocking the industry. In just a few years, it has achieved remarkable accomplishments in the semiconductor equipment sector. According to various sources, New Kailai has been closely collaborating with Huawei’s ever-expanding team of chip production and equipment manufacturing experts.
Rumors suggest that New Kailai’s inception is actually the result of Huawei integrating the R&D resources of the 2012 Laboratory, in collaboration with three chip manufacturing companies under Shenzhen State-owned Assets (Pengxinwei, Shengweixu, Pengxinxu) for deep cooperation. From the equity structure, New Kailai Technology was established in August 2021, with a registered capital of 1.5 billion yuan. A deeper look into the equity reveals that Shenzhen Shenxin Heng Technology Investment Co., Ltd. (referred to as “Shenxin Heng Technology”) holds 100% of the shares, and Shenxin Heng Technology is wholly owned by the Shenzhen Major Industrial Investment Group, a state-owned enterprise directly managed by the Shenzhen Municipal Government.
New Kailai Industrial Machinery Co., Ltd. has two shareholders, with New Kailai Technology Co., Ltd. holding 95.6522% and Shenzhen Junlong High-tech Industry Venture Capital Center (Limited Partnership) holding 4.3478%. Such strong backing has given New Kailai a special mission from its inception.
New Kailai has achieved remarkable results in the semiconductor equipment field. It has introduced over 30 types of semiconductor equipment, covering diffusion products, etching products, thin film products, optical inspection, optical measurement, PX measurement, and power testing, establishing a complete semiconductor production equipment industry chain. Even more astonishingly, on-site staff revealed that New Kailai has successfully tackled the photolithography machine challenge, capable of producing chips from 5 to 28nm. Although this has not yet been publicly announced, it is undoubtedly groundbreaking news.
New Kailai’s equipment naming is also unique and full of distinctive charm. Diffusion equipment is named after Emei Mountain and Shanquingshan, etching equipment is named after Wuyi Mountain, thin film equipment is named after Putuo Mountain, Alishan, and Changbai Mountain, and optical inspection equipment is named after Yuelu Mountain, Danxia Mountain, Penglai Mountain, and Mogan Mountain. These names not only showcase New Kailai’s unique corporate culture but also serve as mysterious symbols, representing its peaks in the semiconductor equipment field.
Currently, New Kailai’s orders have exceeded 10 billion, with clients including major wafer fabs such as Shenzhen Pengxinwei, SMIC, Hua Hong Group, and Yangtze Memory Technologies. Its deep binding with these major manufacturers enables rapid iteration of equipment from “R&D – verification – mass production,” significantly shortening the product development cycle. This astonishing speed has left the entire industry in awe, as if New Kailai possesses magical wings, soaring freely in the sky of technology.
New Kailai’s equipment includes critical tools for chip manufacturing, such as etching machines and deposition equipment. Considering the return of the Kirin 9020 chip, is there a subtle connection between the two? Industry insiders boldly speculate that perhaps it is New Kailai’s advanced equipment that has significantly contributed to the manufacturing of the Kirin 9020 chip.
After all, the Kirin 9000 series chip in the Huawei Mate 70 phone was confirmed to be manufactured using a 7nm process after disassembly. Although SMIC can produce 7nm chips through DUV multiple exposure technology (Double Patterning), the cost and efficiency are difficult to compete with EUV equipment.
Now, the Kirin 9020 chip can achieve the miracle of “running 7nm performance with a 14nm process,” and New Kailai’s advanced equipment may very well be a key factor.
In the chip industry ecosystem built by Huawei, New Kailai plays an indispensable role. On the manufacturing side, the Kirin 9020 chip has achieved breakthroughs in technology; on the equipment side, New Kailai continues to push forward, striving to develop semiconductor equipment;
On the ecosystem side, Huawei’s “Taishan Plan” collaborates with upstream and downstream enterprises to build a complete industry chain from EDA software to packaging and testing. The emergence of New Kailai undoubtedly injects strong vitality into this industry chain, making the entire ecosystem more robust and powerful.
The significant return of the Kirin 9020 chip, along with the potential key role played by New Kailai, marks a gradual maturation of China’s semiconductor industry, achieving a stunning transformation from non-existence to existence, from weakness to strength. The once strangled neck by U.S. sanctions has now completely broken free from its shackles.
The domestic chip supply chain has achieved full-link self-control, no longer needing to worry about being choked by others.
In this smoke-free technological war, Chinese enterprises have achieved a resounding victory through tenacious perseverance, exceptional wisdom, and relentless effort.
In the future, it is believed that Huawei and New Kailai will continue to work hand in hand, creating more miracles on the road of technology, allowing China’s technological brilliance to shine even brighter on the world stage!
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