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Coco Feng

Huawei Technologies has unveiled its first smartphone powered by a next-generation mobile processor based on the company’s proprietary Tau Scaling Law, continuing its push to boost chip performance while reducing reliance on advanced foreign semiconductor equipment.
Speaking at a launch event in Guangzhou on Monday, Richard Yu Chengdong, chairman of Huawei’s consumer business group, described the Kirin 9050 Pro as the company’s “most powerful Kirin chip ever”.
The processor is based on Huawei’s newly established Tau Scaling Law, which seeks to improve semiconductor performance by reducing signal delays. One technology developed under the new approach, LogicFolding, is designed to shorten signal paths and ultimately pack more transistors into a smaller space.
The chip is used in the Mate XT 2, a new trifold smartphone unveiled on Monday starting at 19,999 yuan (US$2,980). Huawei’s Yu stated that the chip improved overall performance by 42 per cent compared with the previous-generation Mate XTs model released last year.
The launch comes as competition in the foldable phone sector heats up. Chinese rival Xiaomi is set to announce a new foldable model later on Monday, while Apple’s first-ever foldable is expected to be revealed on Wednesday.
Global shipments of foldable phones grew 18 per cent last year, according to Counterpoint Research on Monday, which projected growth to accelerate to 24 per cent this year and 37 per cent in 2027.
The Mate XT 2 is also the first device to run on the updated HarmonyOS 7, the latest version of Huawei’s self-developed operating system. Initially released to developers in June as a beta version featuring AI coding agents, the software began rolling out to existing Huawei phones on Monday.
The wave of new hardware and software releases underscores Huawei’s continued drive for innovation despite strict export controls that have severely limited the company’s access to advanced American chips and semiconductor equipment, and cut it off from Google’s proprietary Android services.


The Kirin chip, mentioned in a research paper in July under the code name “Kirin 2026”, is based on Huawei’s Tau Scaling Law. The company has said the approach could help it achieve transistor densities equivalent to those of a cutting-edge 1.4-nanometre process by 2031 – without requiring advanced extreme ultraviolet lithography machines, which are subject to United States-led export restrictions on sales to China.
In a paper published last week, Huawei reported that the chip ran cooler than its predecessor, packed 55 per cent more transistors per square millimetre, and cut power use by up to 66 per cent on some critical tasks. The paper, out on ChinaXiv, has not yet been peer-reviewed.
When presenting the Tau Scaling Law in May, He Tingbo, chairwoman of Huawei's Scientist Committee and president of the company’s semiconductor business department, said the firm had used it to design and mass-produce 381 chips over the past six years.
The heavy investment in chip development, coupled with rising component costs, has weighed on the company’s profitability. Research and development spending jumped 25 per cent year on year to 121.4 billion yuan (US$18 billion) in the first half of the year, while net profit fell 36 per cent to 23.8 billion yuan.
However, revenue still grew 9.6 per cent during the period to 467.8 billion yuan, helped by a strong rebound in smartphone shipments and accelerating demand for Huawei’s AI processors.
Huawei also led the Chinese smartphone market with a 22.6 per cent share in the second quarter, driven by a 19.4 per cent jump in shipments, according to data from research firm IDC.
Beyond smartphones, Huawei continues to benefit from wider adoption of its Ascend AI chips as a domestic alternative to China-restricted Nvidia products. A growing list of AI firms, including DeepSeek and Z.ai, also known as Zhipu, are looking to deploy Huawei chips and accelerators to run and even train their AI models.
Huawei and other domestic chip suppliers were expected to capture nearly 80 per cent of China’s AI server market this year, further squeezing global rivals such as Nvidia, according to TrendForce data in June.
Additional reporting by Howard Liu


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Coming just ahead of new models from Apple and Xiaomi, the device highlights a fierce battle in the high-end foldable market


Coming just ahead of new models from Apple and Xiaomi, the device highlights a fierce battle in the high-end foldable market.


Huawei unveils new trifold smartphone powered by Tau Scaling Law-based Kirin chip

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Coming just ahead of new models from Apple and Xiaomi, the device highlights a fierce battle in the high-end foldable market

Coming just ahead of new models from Apple and Xiaomi, the device highlights a fierce battle in the high-end foldable market