Huawei finding ways to boost chip performance and catch up with US tech

Huawei recently revealed that its chip performance still lags behind the US tech by at least one generation. The company is constantly finding new ways to help it overcome the chipset industry challenges and keep pace with its competitors.

Ren Zhengfei, the Founder and CEO of Huawei, had an interview with the People’s Daily newspaper today. During the talk, he revealed how the US sanctions have affected the company’s growth over time and harmed its chip development.

US-Huawei chip war began in 2019, when the foreign authorities banned the Chinese company, accusing it of posing a threat to the United States’ national security.

Despite several clarifications, the US government prohibited Huawei from using its advanced technologies and chipmaking equipment. The OEM’s progress declined in the consumer market due to the lack of the latest chip manufacturing tools.

The Founder further recalled the company’s efforts in the past few years. He said that Huawei has invested nearly $25.07 billion (180 billion yuan) in the R&D segment per year and has seen a positive sign in chip compounding.

According to Ren, Huawei is just one of many Chinese chipmakers in the country which is dealing with the US “unilateral export controls”. He also added that the US has exaggerated Huawei’s chip achievements. One of his statements reads:

Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei (Image Credits: Huawei)

“Our single chip is still behind the US by a generation. We use mathematics to supplement physics, non-Moore’s law to supplement Moore’s law, and cluster computing to supplement single chips, and the results can also achieve practical conditions.”

Ren Zhengfei believes that Huawei is not that great yet. It still has to work hard to reach the US tech evaluation. Although the good news is that the company is constantly looking for workarounds to help it with chipset improvements.

In the past few months, the US has put up several hurdles for Huawei to curb its growth in the chip field. The latest one includes a worldwide ban (including China) on Ascend AI processors, which carries the toughest penalties for violators.

Huawei is still hoping for a positive escalation in the chip performance improvements amid US tech controls, with slow but steady solutions. Only time can tell how the company manages to turn the tide in its favor.

[Source – Reuters]