Huawei and SMIC relied on US technology to build advanced chips, says report

Huawei and SMIC are working on advanced 5nm processors but a new report says that both firms relied upon US technology last year to build their advanced chips. This activity took place when these companies were struggling with the U.S. ban.

According to the information, Huawei and SMIC developed the 7nm 5G Kirin chips in China for the Mate 60 series, using U.S. technology. SMIC has taken help from California’s Applied Materials Incorporation and Lam Research firm’s machineries.

Notably, the semiconductor producer obtained this equipment before the U.S. sanctions applied to its supplies in October 2022. It seems Huawei and SMIC had some leftover machinery and they used them for new 7nm chip production.

The same happened with the Qingyun L540 notebook that equips the 5nm Kirin 9006C processor. Earlier, it was quoted that SMIC silently brought an advanced chip to the table. But later, a teardown revealed that it belonged to TSMC, implying that Huawei used the leftover stock.

The input further says that the amount of equipment supplied to China wasn’t enough to develop new chipsets in large quantities. This could be a major reason why the Huawei Mate 60 series dealt with supply chain issues in the past.

However, the latest news could now make the U.S. authorities more alert and strict towards Chinese companies. The foreign government has already graphed out the most advanced factories of SMIC from American imports.

After the Mate 60 Pro’s success in the smartphone market, the U.S. began eyeing both SMIC and Huawei. Eventually, the Biden administration is constantly making efforts to stop China from developing advanced AI chips, in favor of the nation’s security.

(Source)