Despite U.S. ban, Huawei trying well to catch up with rivals in the chip race

2024 seems to be the year of Huawei as the company began progressing in every field including chip production despite the U.S. ban. With the onset of this year, the Chinese phone maker is in the headlines for focusing well on its chipset yield.

Whether it’s Kirin processors or Ascend AI chips, Huawei is working hard on both fronts. Before checking the latest developments, let’s go through a small flashback.

The “U.S. bans Huawei” is not a new story to Chinese consumers. In 2019, the American government blacklisted Huawei in the name of U.S. security concerns. This ultimately cut the supply of highly advanced chipmaking tools to China.

Before this ban, Huawei used to print its chip through TSMC. However, foreign trade restrictions led the Taiwan chip maker to give up on new Kirin processor production. As a result, Huawei put a halt on its high-end Kirin chipset project.

Turning point:

Although the tables turned in August 2023 when Huawei introduced the Mate 60 series with a 7nm Kirin 9000s 5G chip. The smartphone launch not only caused a stir in the Chinese market but also gave a headache to the U.S. Commerce Department.

Even though the chip has been developed using old equipment and tech materials, it was enough to show that Huawei is coming back on track. The U.S. became busy finding why, where, and how the chip was made. Meanwhile, Huawei started looking at how to increase its chip yields.

Major aids:

The Chinese phone maker started teaming up with native partners like SMIC for its chip development. As per the details, the Kirin 9000s uses an N+2 7nm tech from SMIC. More new Kirin chips based on SMIC tech are also rumored to be underway.

Huawei is also taking help from the stocked chip-making equipment by ASML to develop new processors. The Chinese government, on the other hand, has eventually begun backing up the company with more funding for chip development.

Huawei further believes that if they don’t start using self-made chips now, the tech gap will continue to persist. It seems the U.S. sanctions appeared as an opportunity for the firm to become independent.

New development:

In April 2024, Huawei introduced the Pura 70 Ultra with a new Kirin 9010 chip. TechInsights found that the new processor belongs to the SMIC foundry. This news has once again created a buzz in the U.S. on Huawei’s progress.

Both Huawei and SMIC are now in the headlines for developing a 5nm chip. The latter is said to lay chip manufacturing lines in Shanghai for mass production. Rumors regarding 5nm and 3nm chip development are also flying in the air.

Although Huawei put a full stop to these talks by saying that the company is currently focusing on resolving 7nm issues instead of making new developments.

Huawei AI chip is another end of the rope. Ascend 910B has become quite popular in China. Chinese firms are constantly picking the respective chip over the U.S. alternatives such as Nvidia A100. Tests even proved that Huawei AI processors are more efficient than that of Nvidia.

A recent rumor has added that Huawei is now testing powerful Taishan cores that are 175% faster than the Kirin 9000s. Hence, we might see a dynamic 5nm processor with the Mate 70 series later this year.

Rivals like TSMC says that Huawei will take years to catch up in the chip race. But regardless of the tough U.S. ban and trade challenges, Huawei is trying its best to rise in the chip production game. It would be interesting to see how Huawei will win this game!