A Rare 4.5-Hour Interview with Huawei's Chief Scientist for Semiconductors

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A Rare 4.5-Hour Interview with Huawei's Chief Scientist for Semiconductors<br>Liao emphasizes balancing home innovation with int'l cooperation to drive China's chip industry through system-level breakthroughs and economic viability in navigating global competition.

China Tech Bite<br>Aug 05, 2026

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A few days ago, Zhang Xiaojun, a well-known host of a Chinese tech video podcast, interviewed Liao Heng, a Huawei Fellow and the company’s Chief Scientist for semiconductors. This was a rare chance to peek into Huawei’s most secretive division.<br>After being hit by U.S. sanctions in 2017, Huawei poured massive resources into R&D, aiming to develop its own high-end chips and AI servers. The full interview runs for four and a half hours and is definitely worth watching, but given the length, I’ve picked out some key highlights here. The spoken content has been lightly edited for clarity and readability.<br>SUMMARY

In this discussion, Liao delves into the current state and future of China's chip industry, emphasizing the critical importance of autonomous innovation. The conversation highlights the shift toward independent intellectual property and system-level breakthroughs—such as data center architectures and super-node technologies—while navigating irreversible technological trends. It also explores how open ecosystems and open-source culture can drive progress, alongside insights from Huawei's Ascend chip development. Ultimately, the dialogue underscores a strategic balance between self-reliance and international cooperation, focusing on practicality, economic viability, and energy efficiency in the face of global competition.

HIGHLIGHTS

Q: When designing the Ascend 910 and 950 chips, how did your mindset differ? Especially before and after the threat of supply disruption.<br>LIAO: Changes in one’s state of mind are difficult to accurately describe in words—just like Dong Cunrui’s mindset when facing the explosive charge or the combat mentality of the soldiers at Shangganling. When confronted with difficulties, we’re more inclined to focus on solving the problem itself rather than dwelling excessively on our personal emotions.

Q: Could you, from a broader perspective, divide the past three to four decades of the semiconductor industry history into several major eras and briefly outline the central theme of each era?<br>LIAO: The semiconductor industry’s past 30 years can be divided into two intertwined main threads. One thread is the processor (CPU), which gradually entered the desktop office and enterprise server sectors starting in the 1980s and, driven by the digitalization process, has now reached the AI wave. The other thread is chips related to communication infrastructure, which have evolved alongside the internet—from a state of no connectivity to the era of the Internet of Everything.

Q: Has the semiconductor industry gone through a cycle from extreme prosperity to decline, and if so, why does this cyclical pattern occur?<br>LIAO: Yes, after experiencing an extremely frenzied period of growth at a certain stage, the semiconductor industry entered a downturn lasting roughly 10 to 15 years—particularly between 2005 and 2015, when venture capitalists virtually ceased investing in chip companies, viewing the sector as a sunset industry. However, the industry subsequently rebounded thanks to the boom in mobile internet and AI, and in recent years has once again entered a phase of rapid growth.

Q: Why has the semiconductor industry experienced a downturn lasting more than a decade following the internet era?<br>LIAO: This is mainly due to the fact that companies that previously achieved tremendous success in certain fields have established near-monopolistic advantages, giving them enhanced control over supply chains and greater pricing power. This not only narrows the profit margins for suppliers but also dominates demand and technological development trends, thereby having a negative impact on innovation and stifling opportunities for new innovative forces to put their ideas into practice.

Q: When you think of Google, do you see it as a search company or an advertising company, given that most of its revenue comes from search-related ads? '<br>LIAO: Yes, Google is indeed a company primarily driven by search technology and its advertising business—especially since the vast majority of its revenue is closely tied to search-related ads.

Q: Companies in the tech industry often find it difficult to reinvent themselves and continuously innovate once they’ve established a monopoly position. What’s your take on this?<br>LIAO: This is a challenge commonly faced across the tech industry. After many companies achieve their first major breakthrough and establish a competitive edge, it becomes extremely difficult for them to generate disruptive innovation again in new areas. What’s remarkable about the world is that often,...