Executive Summary

From April 2024 to April 2025, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. has solidified its position as a leader in China’s semiconductor industry, achieving significant milestones in chip design and production despite U.S. sanctions. This report, based on open-source Chinese-language information, details Huawei’s advancements in mobile CPUs (Kirin series) and AI GPUs (Ascend series), alongside its strategic collaboration with SiCarrier Industry Machines (Shenzhen SiCarrier Technologies). Huawei’s chip-making progress, driven by its HiSilicon subsidiary and partnerships with Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), reflects China’s push for semiconductor self-sufficiency. SiCarrier’s emergence as a key equipment supplier has bolstered Huawei’s efforts to produce advanced chips using domestic tools, countering U.S. export controls. This report examines technological breakthroughs, production challenges, and the roles of associated companies, including SMIC, TSMC, and SiCarrier.

1. Introduction

Huawei has faced U.S. export controls since 2019, restricting access to advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment and high-performance chips. These sanctions, tightened in 2023, aimed to limit China’s progress in AI, 5G, and advanced chip production. Despite these constraints, Huawei has leveraged domestic partnerships, government support, and innovative engineering to advance its chip-making capabilities. The 2023 launch of the Mate 60 Pro, powered by the Kirin 9000s (7nm, SMIC-manufactured), marked a turning point, showcasing Huawei’s ability to produce 5G-capable chips using older deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography. In 2024-2025, Huawei expanded its ambitions, with SiCarrier playing a pivotal role in developing domestic chip-making tools. This report analyzes Huawei’s chip-making achievements and SiCarrier’s contributions, drawing on Chinese-language sources such as Sina Tech, Tencent News, and industry reports.

2. Huawei’s Chip Making Achievements

2.1. Mobile CPUs: Kirin Series

Background Huawei’s Kirin series, designed by HiSilicon, powers its smartphones and tablets. The Kirin 9000s, introduced in 2023, used SMIC’s second-generation 7nm process (N+2) and enabled Huawei’s return to the 5G smartphone market. By April 2024, Huawei faced production bottlenecks due to competing demands for AI chips, but it continued to refine its mobile CPU strategy. Achievements (April 2024 – April 2025)

Market Resurgence: According to Sina Tech (March 2025), Huawei reclaimed its position as China’s top smartphone vendor in Q1 2024, driven by the Mate 60 series. The Mate 70 series, launched in November 2024, further solidified this lead, with Tencent News reporting a 37% surge in smartphone shipments in 2024, reaching over 45 million units. The Kirin 9000s powered these devices, optimized for HarmonyOS NEXT, Huawei’s self-developed operating system, which debuted in 2024 to replace Android dependencies. Production Improvements: Chinese-language reports from 21jingji.com indicate SMIC improved 7nm yields from 50% in 2023 to 60% by mid-2024, enhancing Kirin chip output. By Q1 2025, SMIC’s SN1 and SN2 facilities reached a combined capacity of 50,000 wafers per month (WPM), supporting Huawei’s smartphone production goals of 60 million units in 2024. Technological Advancements: Huawei explored 5-6nm nodes for future Kirin chips, as noted in WeChat tech blogs. While mass production at these nodes was limited by DUV equipment constraints, Huawei and SMIC employed multi-patterning techniques to push process boundaries, achieving incremental performance gains in the Kirin 9000s successor, tentatively named Kirin 9010, for the Mate 70 series.

Challenges

Yield Constraints: SMIC’s 7nm yields remained below TSMC’s 76%, increasing per-chip costs. This limited Huawei’s ability to scale production for high-demand periods, leading to Mate 60 stock shortages in early 2024. Equipment Limitations: U.S. restrictions on extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography forced reliance on DUV systems, which are less efficient for advanced nodes. Huawei mitigated this through process optimizations, but production costs remained high. AI Chip Prioritization: Huawei’s shift to prioritize Ascend AI chips in early 2024 strained Kirin supply, causing consumer wait times of up to a month, as reported by NetEase Tech.

2.2. AI GPUs: Ascend Series

Background Huawei’s Ascend series targets AI and cloud computing, competing with Nvidia’s GPUs. The Ascend 910B (7nm, SMIC-manufactured) was a cornerstone of Huawei’s AI strategy in 2023. In 2024, Huawei aimed to challenge Nvidia’s H100 with the Ascend 910C and prepared for the Ascend 920 launch in 2025. Achievements (April 2024 – April 2025)

Ascend 910C Rollout: In August 2024, Huawei announced the Ascend 910C, marketed as a rival to Nvidia’s H100. By September 2024, samples were sent to ByteDance, Baidu, and China Mobile, with orders accepted, according to Sina Tech. Mass production began in Q1 2025, using SMIC’s N+2 process. Tencent News reported yield improvements from 20% in late 2024 to 40% by February 2025, a critical step toward commercial viability. CloudMatrix 384: At Huawei Connect 2024, Huawei unveiled the AI CloudMatrix 384, powered by Ascend 910C chips. This rack-scale AI solution, detailed in 36kr.com, competed with Nvidia’s GB200 NVL72, leveraging advanced optical networking and Huawei’s Compute Architecture for Neural Networks (CANN) software. The system supported large-scale AI training and inference, attracting interest from Chinese cloud providers. Ascend 920 Introduction: On April 10, 2025, Huawei launched the Ascend 920, targeting the market gap created by the U.S. ban on Nvidia’s H20 chip. Expected to enter mass production in H2 2025, the 920 was positioned as a performance equivalent to the H20, capitalizing on Nvidia’s $5.5 billion write-off, as noted in Guancha.cn. Software Ecosystem Growth: Huawei’s CANN platform, a CUDA alternative, saw significant adoption. DeepSeek’s January 2025 announcement, covered by TechWeb, confirmed a 70% cost reduction for its V3 AI model on Ascend 910B chips, driven by Huawei’s optimization guidelines. Over 5,200 partners and 3.1 million developers joined the Ascend ecosystem by end-2024, per Huawei’s 2024 Annual Report.

Challenges

Low Yields: The Ascend 910C’s initial 20% yield in 2024 constrained supply, with ByteDance receiving only 30,000 of 100,000 ordered 910B chips by July 2024, per Sina Tech. Even with 40% yields by early 2025, Huawei lagged behind industry standards (70%+). Software Stability: CANN faced criticism for instability and poor documentation, as reported in WeChat tech groups. Chinese AI firms noted frequent crashes, requiring Huawei’s direct engineering support. Sanctions Impact: U.S. restrictions on high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and EUV equipment forced Huawei to source HBM creatively (e.g., via CoAsia Electronics) and rely on DUV-based processes, increasing costs.