Huawei Technologies said that within five years its high-end chips would achieve a transistor density comparable to 1.4 nanometer (nm) processors, highlighting Beijing’s efforts to offset US sanctions that have made it difficult for China to manufacture advanced chip.
Although Huawei did not offer independent performance statistics, the goal—which was announced at a semiconductor symposium in Shanghai—is noteworthy because, by the end of the decade, 1.4nm is anticipated to be near the worldwide frontier for advanced chip production.
Since Washington has limited China’s access to cutting-edge lithography equipment and other crucial semiconductor technologies, it is generally believed that China would not be able to achieve that level through traditional production alone.
The leading manufacturer of cutting-edge chips in the world, Taiwan’s TSMC, presently employs a 2nm manufacturing node and intends to switch to a 1.4nm process for commercial production in 2028.
Huawei stated on Monday that the industry can no longer rely solely on reducing the size of transistors in order to improve semiconductors.
According to Huawei, the principle known as the Tau Scaling Law focuses on reducing the time it takes for signals and data to pass through semiconductors and processing systems. If successful, it might provide the business with a means of enhancing chip density and performance even in the face of China’s limited access to the most cutting-edge semiconductor technology.
Huawei’s semiconductor innovations carry significant risks since China’s future economic growth and geopolitical clout depend more and more on frontier technology.
Chinese AI models, such as DeepSeek’s most recent flagship model V4, which was unveiled last month, are increasingly powered by Huawei’s Ascend chip family.
Huawei said that its Kirin processors, which are slated for release later this year, will be the first to employ a related architecture known as LogicFolding, which it claimed would significantly increase performance and reduce internal chip wiring.
Based on the Tau Scaling Law, it has created and mass-produced 381 chips over the last six years for use in AI computers and smartphones, according to the business.
According to He Hui, director of semiconductor research at Omdia, “Huawei is proposing a shift from traditional node-driven scaling to system-level efficiency scaling.” “The company is concentrating on shortening interconnect, lowering latency, and improving data movement inside the chip, which is a credible way to extract more performance when leading-edge lithography is constrained, rather than depending solely on smaller transistors.”
In 2019, Huawei was placed on a US trade blacklist, which limited its ability to rely on international contract chip manufacturers and cut off several US-origin products, including chips and software.
After the limitations were put in place, Huawei went into what it called “extreme survival mode.” A key component of Huawei’s survival strategy was a covert backup chip project headed by He Tingbo, president of the company’s semiconductor division and director of its Scientist Committee.
With the release of its 5G-capable Mate 60 series smartphones in 2023, the company made an unexpected comeback. These devices were powered by a 7nm system-on-a-chip manufactured by Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC), China’s largest contract chip manufacturer.
Following Huawei’s unveiling of its LogicFolding architecture, SMIC shares increased 7.6%.
Although observers claim China still lags behind global leaders in the most cutting-edge process technologies, Huawei’s most recent chip design approach is considered as proof that the company and its Chinese partners had made progress despite US limitations.
It also comes after Huawei published a long-term development roadmap for its AI chips, such as the Ascend series, in October.
This year, demand for Ascend chips has increased in China as local IT companies look for alternatives to the US business Nvidia, whose most cutting-edge AI processors are prohibited from being sold in China. Earlier this month, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang stated that the business had “largely conceded” the Chinese AI chip market to Huawei.
