diff --git a/setuptools/_wheelbuilder.py b/setuptools/_wheelbuilder.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..b223edae0b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/setuptools/_wheelbuilder.py
@@ -0,0 +1,180 @@
+import csv
+import hashlib
+import io
+import itertools
+import logging
+import os
+import stat
+import time
+from base64 import urlsafe_b64encode
+from pathlib import Path
+from typing import Dict, Iterable, Optional, Tuple, Union
+from zipfile import ZIP_DEFLATED, ZipFile, ZipInfo
+
+from .discovery import _Filter
+
+_Path = Union[str, Path]
+_Timestamp = Tuple[int, int, int, int, int, int]
+_StrOrIter = Union[str, Iterable[str]]
+
+_HASH_ALG = "sha256"
+_HASH_BUF_SIZE = 65536
+_MINIMUM_TIMESTAMP = 315532800  # 1980-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
+_DEFAULT_COMPRESSION = ZIP_DEFLATED
+_WHEEL_VERSION = "1.0"
+_META_TEMPLATE = f"""\
+Wheel-Version: {_WHEEL_VERSION}
+Generator: {{generator}}
+Root-Is-Purelib: {{root_is_purelib}}
+"""
+
+_logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
+
+
+class WheelBuilder:
+    """Wrapper around ZipFile that abstracts some aspects of creating a ``.whl`` file
+    It should be used as a context manager and before closing will add the ``WHEEL``
+    and ``RECORD`` files to the end of the archive.
+    The caller is responsible for writing files/dirs in a suitable order,
+    (which includes ensuring ``.dist-info`` is written last).
+    """
+
+    def __init__(
+        self,
+        path: _Path,
+        root_is_purelib: bool = True,
+        compression: int = _DEFAULT_COMPRESSION,
+        generator: Optional[str] = None,
+        timestamp: Optional[int] = None,
+    ):
+        self._path = Path(path)
+        self._root_is_purelib = root_is_purelib
+        self._generator = generator
+        self._compression = compression
+        self._zip = ZipFile(self._path, "w", compression=compression)
+        self._records: Dict[str, Tuple[str, int]] = {}
+
+        basename = str(self._path.with_suffix("").name)
+        parts = basename.split("-")
+        self._distribution, self._version = parts[:2]
+        self._tags = parts[-3:]
+        self._build = parts[2] if len(parts) > 5 else ""
+        self._dist_info = f"{self._distribution}-{self._version}.dist-info"
+        self._timestamp = _get_timestamp(timestamp, int(time.time()))
+        assert len(self._tags), f"Invalid wheel name: {self._path}"
+
+    def __enter__(self) -> "WheelBuilder":
+        self._zip.__enter__()
+        _logger.debug(f"creating '{str(self._path)!r}'")
+        return self
+
+    def __exit__(self, exc_type, exc_value, traceback):
+        self._add_wheel_meta()
+        self._save_record()
+        return self._zip.__exit__(exc_type, exc_value, traceback)
+
+    def _default_generator(self) -> str:
+        from setuptools.version import __version__
+
+        return f"setuptools ({__version__})"
+
+    def add_existing_file(self, arcname: str, file: _Path):
+        """Add a file that already exists in the file system to the wheel."""
+        hashsum = hashlib.new(_HASH_ALG)
+        file_stat = os.stat(file)
+        zipinfo = ZipInfo(arcname, self._timestamp)
+        attr = stat.S_IMODE(file_stat.st_mode) | stat.S_IFMT(file_stat.st_mode)
+        zipinfo.external_attr = attr << 16
+        zipinfo.compress_type = self._compression
+
+        with open(file, "rb") as src, self._zip.open(zipinfo, "w") as dst:
+            while True:
+                buffer = src.read(_HASH_BUF_SIZE)
+                if not buffer:
+                    file_size = src.tell()
+                    break
+                dst.write(buffer)
+                hashsum.update(buffer)
+
+        _logger.debug(f"adding {str(arcname)!r} [{attr:o}]")
+        hash_digest = urlsafe_b64encode(hashsum.digest()).decode('ascii').rstrip('=')
+        self._records[arcname] = (hash_digest, file_size)
+
+    def add_tree(
+        self, path: _Path, prefix: Optional[str] = None, exclude: Iterable[str] = ()
+    ):
+        """
+        Add the file tree **UNDER** ``path`` to the wheel file (does not include
+        the parent directory itself).
+        You can use ``prefix`` to create a new parent directory.
+        """
+        should_exclude = _Filter(*exclude)
+        for root, dirs, files in os.walk(path):
+            # Use sorted to improve determinism.
+            dirs[:] = [x for x in sorted(dirs) if x != "__pycache__"]
+            for name in sorted(files):
+                file = os.path.normpath(os.path.join(root, name))
+                arcname = os.path.relpath(file, path).replace(os.path.sep, "/")
+                if not os.path.isfile(file) or should_exclude(arcname):
+                    continue
+                if prefix:
+                    arcname = os.path.join(prefix, arcname)
+                self.add_existing_file(arcname, file)
+
+    def new_file(self, arcname: str, contents: _StrOrIter, permissions: int = 0o664):
+        """
+        Create a new entry in the wheel named ``arcname`` that contains
+        the UTF-8 text specified by ``contents``.
+        """
+        zipinfo = ZipInfo(arcname, self._timestamp)
+        zipinfo.external_attr = (permissions | stat.S_IFREG) << 16
+        zipinfo.compress_type = self._compression
+        hashsum = hashlib.new(_HASH_ALG)
+        file_size = 0
+        iter_contents = [contents] if isinstance(contents, str) else contents
+        with self._zip.open(zipinfo, "w") as fp:
+            for part in iter_contents:
+                bpart = bytes(part, "utf-8")
+                file_size += fp.write(bpart)
+                hashsum.update(bpart)
+        hash_digest = urlsafe_b64encode(hashsum.digest()).decode('ascii').rstrip('=')
+        self._records[arcname] = (hash_digest, file_size)
+
+    def _save_record(self):
+        arcname = f"{self._dist_info}/RECORD"
+        zipinfo = ZipInfo(arcname, self._timestamp)
+        zipinfo.external_attr = (0o664 | stat.S_IFREG) << 16
+        zipinfo.compress_type = self._compression
+        out = self._zip.open(zipinfo, "w")
+        buf = io.TextIOWrapper(out, encoding="utf-8")
+        with out, buf:
+            writer = csv.writer(buf, delimiter=",", quotechar='"', lineterminator="\n")
+            for file, (hash_digest, size) in self._records.items():
+                writer.writerow((file, f"{_HASH_ALG}={hash_digest}", size))
+            writer.writerow((arcname, "", ""))
+
+    def _add_wheel_meta(self):
+        arcname = f"{self._dist_info}/WHEEL"
+        beginning = _META_TEMPLATE.format(
+            generator=self._generator or self._default_generator(),
+            root_is_purelib=self._root_is_purelib,
+        )
+        impl_tag, abi_tag, plat_tag = self._tags
+        tags = (
+            f"Tag: {impl}-{abi}-{plat}\n"
+            for impl in impl_tag.split(".")
+            for abi in abi_tag.split(".")
+            for plat in plat_tag.split(".")
+        )
+        build = [f"Build: {self._build}\n"] if self._build else []
+        contents = itertools.chain([beginning], tags, build)
+        self.new_file(arcname, contents)
+
+
+def _get_timestamp(
+    given: Optional[int] = None,
+    fallback: int = _MINIMUM_TIMESTAMP,
+) -> _Timestamp:
+    timestamp = given or int(os.environ.get("SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH", fallback))
+    timestamp = max(timestamp, _MINIMUM_TIMESTAMP)
+    return time.gmtime(timestamp)[0:6]
diff --git a/setuptools/tests/test_wheelbuilder.py b/setuptools/tests/test_wheelbuilder.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..046fccc486
--- /dev/null
+++ b/setuptools/tests/test_wheelbuilder.py
@@ -0,0 +1,86 @@
+# This test is based on the `test_wheelfile.py` from pypa/wheel,
+# which was initially distributed under the MIT License:
+# Copyright (c) 2012 Daniel Holth <dholth@fastmail.fm> and contributors
+import stat
+import sys
+import textwrap
+from zipfile import ZipFile, ZIP_DEFLATED
+
+import pytest
+
+from setuptools._wheelbuilder import WheelBuilder
+
+
+def test_write_str(tmp_path):
+    with WheelBuilder(tmp_path / "test-1.0-py3-none-any.whl") as builder:
+        builder.new_file("hello/héllö.py", 'print("Héllö, world!")\n')
+        builder.new_file("hello/h,ll,.py", 'print("Héllö, world!")\n')
+
+    with ZipFile(tmp_path / "test-1.0-py3-none-any.whl", "r") as zf:
+        infolist = zf.infolist()
+        assert len(infolist) == 4  # RECORD + WHEEL
+        assert infolist[0].filename == "hello/héllö.py"
+        assert infolist[0].file_size == 25
+        assert infolist[1].filename == "hello/h,ll,.py"
+        assert infolist[1].file_size == 25
+        assert infolist[2].filename == "test-1.0.dist-info/WHEEL"
+        assert infolist[3].filename == "test-1.0.dist-info/RECORD"
+
+        record = "\n".join(
+            line
+            for line in str(zf.read("test-1.0.dist-info/RECORD"), "utf-8").splitlines()
+            if not line.startswith("test-1.0.dist-info/WHEEL")
+            # Avoid changes in setuptools versions messing with the test
+        )
+
+        expected = """\
+        hello/héllö.py,sha256=bv-QV3RciQC2v3zL8Uvhd_arp40J5A9xmyubN34OVwo,25
+        "hello/h,ll,.py",sha256=bv-QV3RciQC2v3zL8Uvhd_arp40J5A9xmyubN34OVwo,25
+        test-1.0.dist-info/RECORD,,
+        """
+        assert record.strip() == textwrap.dedent(expected).strip()
+
+
+def test_timestamp(tmp_path_factory, tmp_path, monkeypatch):
+    build_dir = tmp_path_factory.mktemp("build")
+    for filename in ("one", "two", "three"):
+        (build_dir / filename).write_text(filename + "\n", encoding="utf-8")
+
+    # The earliest date representable in TarInfos, 1980-01-01
+    monkeypatch.setenv("SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH", "315576060")
+
+    wheel_path = tmp_path / "test-1.0-py3-none-any.whl"
+    with WheelBuilder(wheel_path) as builder:
+        builder.add_tree(build_dir)
+
+    with ZipFile(wheel_path, "r") as zf:
+        for info in zf.infolist():
+            assert info.date_time[:3] == (1980, 1, 1)
+            assert info.compress_type == ZIP_DEFLATED
+
+
+@pytest.mark.skipif(
+    sys.platform == "win32", reason="Windows does not support UNIX-like permissions"
+)
+def test_attributes(tmp_path_factory, tmp_path):
+    # With the change from ZipFile.write() to .writestr(), we need to manually
+    # set member attributes.
+    build_dir = tmp_path_factory.mktemp("build")
+    files = (("foo", 0o644), ("bar", 0o755))
+    for filename, mode in files:
+        path = build_dir / filename
+        path.write_text(filename + "\n", encoding="utf-8")
+        path.chmod(mode)
+
+    wheel_path = tmp_path / "test-1.0-py3-none-any.whl"
+    with WheelBuilder(wheel_path) as builder:
+        builder.add_tree(build_dir)
+
+    with ZipFile(wheel_path, "r") as zf:
+        for filename, mode in files:
+            info = zf.getinfo(filename)
+            assert info.external_attr == (mode | stat.S_IFREG) << 16
+            assert info.compress_type == ZIP_DEFLATED
+
+        info = zf.getinfo("test-1.0.dist-info/RECORD")
+        assert info.external_attr == (0o664 | stat.S_IFREG) << 16