DigiTimes评论文章回顾华为Kirin 9050 Pro回归与小米Xring O3登场，称中国手机芯片竞赛扩容

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Commentary: Huawei's Kirin comeback, Xiaomi's Xring entry widen China's chipmaking race

Staff reporter, commentary

Sep 9, 2026, 12:39

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Credit: Huawei

In September 2020, Huawei's smartphone business suffered a severe blow.

The US had tightened chip restrictions on Huawei, prompting TSMC to halt shipments to the Chinese technology group in mid-September. Richard Yu, then head of Huawei's consumer business, said TSMC would no longer be able to manufacture smartphone chips for Huawei after September 15. The Kirin 9000 consequently became a major dividing line for Huawei's flagship mobile processors.
Six years later, again in September, Huawei has returned with a new Kirin chip — and this time Xiaomi has joined the race to develop processors in-house. The timing, six autumns apart, is striking.
On September 7, 2026, Huawei and Xiaomi launched flagship foldable smartphones on the same day, each putting a proprietary chip at the centre of its product. Huawei's Mate XT 2 features the new Kirin 9050 Pro, while Xiaomi's 18 Fold debuts the Xring O3 AI flagship processor.
Six years on, it is not only Huawei that has changed. China's smartphone chip industry has changed with it.
Huawei commands the spotlight, Xiaomi joins China's chip race
On the surface, the occasion amounted to two major smartphone vendors launching new devices. Chinese media coverage, however, gave the simultaneous chip debuts a broader significance. State media concentrated on Huawei, while Chinese financial and technology outlets devoted extensive coverage to Xiaomi. Both companies are developing chips in-house, but their roles and weight within China's technology industry remain markedly different.
For Huawei, the biggest development is not simply the Kirin 9050 Pro itself. The launch marks Kirin's return to a Huawei flagship smartphone event after roughly six years. The processor also departs from the conventional path: Huawei describes the Kirin 9050 Pro as the first high-performance chip designed using i ts "τ (Tau) Scaling Law," which uses "logic folding" to arrange logic units across layers and vertical interconnects to shorten data-transmission distances.
The challenge facing the Kirin 9000 six years ago was whether Huawei could secure access to advanced semiconductor manufacturing. For the Kirin 9050 Pro, the question is how far Huawei can extend chip performance while access to leading-edge processes remains constrained.
Huawei shifts the contest from process nodes to architecture
That captures Huawei's biggest strategic change over the past six years. Smartphone processors were traditionally compared by process technology, core counts, performance and power consumption. With access to advanced processes still constrained, Huawei is increasingly seeking gains through chip architecture, 3D design, packaging, thermal management and broader system-level engineering.
Huawei says the Kirin 9050 Pro increases transistor density from about 155 million to roughly 238 million per square millimetre compared with its predecessor. At equivalent performance, power consumption for the NPU, GPU and CPU performance cores falls by 66%, 58% and 41%, respectively.
The significance of the Kirin 9050 Pro therefore goes beyond Huawei producing another smartphone chip. It is an attempt to demonstrate that architectural and system-level design can provide another route to performance gains when process technology is constrained.
Xiaomi, meanwhile, has entered the same race at an opportune moment.
Xiaomi begins its chipmaking marathon with China's local supply chain
Xiaomi unveiled its first foldable flagship, the Xiaomi 18 Fold, on the same day, debuting the Xring O3. Xiaomi chairman and CEO Lei Jun reiterated the company's long-term chipmaking commitment, saying Xiaomi had prepared for sustained investment from the day it decided to develop chips. The company plans to invest CNY50 billion (≈ US$7.45 billion) over 10 years and has invested CNY21 billion so far. The Xring O3 has entered commercial use, while the Xring O100 and D100 are scheduled for commercialisation in the first half of 2027.
For Xiaomi, this is still the early stage of a long chipmaking campaign. Compared with Huawei, it remains the junior player.
The Xring O3 is not the only piece of the strategy. Xiaomi has also partnered with CXMT to bring LPDDR6 memory into mass production for the Xiaomi 18 Fold. The combination suggests Xiaomi is beginning to connect its proprietary SoC strategy with China's domestic memory supply chain, using flagship smartphones as high-end platforms for validating these components.
Huawei and Xiaomi are therefore pursuing in-house chips from very different positions. Huawei has travelled from losing access to chip supplies to putting Kirin back on the flagship stage. Xiaomi is joining the long-distance race later, with CXMT's LPDDR6 and other parts of China's semiconductor supply chain increasingly running alongside it.
China's chipmaking race evolves from Huawei breakthrough to industry relay
China's semiconductor strategy and industrial landscape have changed dramatically over the past six years. That does not mean its smartphone industry has achieved self-sufficiency in high-end chips. Advanced process technology, EDA tools, semiconductor equipment, IP and high-end manufacturing capabilities remain long-term constraints. But the industry surrounding them has clearly changed.
Huawei was once the standout Chinese smartphone vendor pursuing high-end processors largely on its own. Xiaomi has now committed to Xring, CXMT has entered LPDDR6, and more domestic suppliers are moving towards core smartphone components. Their starting points and pace differ, but the direction is increasingly aligned.
Rather than simply halting China's smartphone chip ambitions, years of US technology restrictions have inadvertently helped propel domestic chip development higher up the industry's agenda. Huawei has returned Kirin to its flagship stage, while Xiaomi, CXMT and a widening group of domestic suppliers have emerged alongside it.
That may be the most consequential development in this six-year race. Washington originally sought to cut Huawei off from chip supplies. Six years later, China's chipmaking track has grown longer and more crowded. Huawei is no longer running alone, and Xiaomi is no longer merely a smartphone brand. From Kirin to Xring and from SoCs to LPDDR6, China's smartphone chip ambitions are evolving from one company's attempt to break through restrictions into a broader industry relay.
The restrictions did not end the race. They helped bring more runners onto the track.

Article
translated by Levi Li and edited by Jerry Chen

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