As contradicting reports surface, the capacity of Huawei and China as a whole to produce cutting-edge processors in the face of US restrictions has once again been called into doubt.
According to U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, there is no proof that Chinese smartphone and telecom giant Huawei can mass-produce handsets with cutting-edge components.
The assertion was made two months after tech research companies predicted Huawei will return to the 5G smartphone market by year’s end.
The Mate 60 Pro was introduced by Huawei in late August, which quickly assuaged the rumors. The model is powered by a 7nm system-on-chip (SoC), which was created by Huawei’s chip subsidiary HiSilicon and made by China’s largest chip manufacturer SMIC, according to a device breakdown investigation by TechInsights.
According to Dan Hutcheson, vice chair of TechInsights, “discovering a Kirin chip using SMIC’s 7nm (N+2) foundry process in the new Huawei Mate 60 Pro smartphone demonstrates the technical progress China’s semiconductor industry has been able to make without EUV lithography tools.”
But during a U.S. House hearing, Raimondo stated that “we don’t have any evidence that they can manufacture seven-nanometer at scale.”
Invoking national security concerns, the U.S. administration included Huawei to a list of entities in 2019 that prevented it from obtaining sophisticated chipmaking equipment from the country. The Chinese giant has been forced to diversify its income sources into less well-known industries like IoT and automotive as a result of the sanctions decimating its phone sector.
As global smartphone shipments slowed, Oppo, another Chinese smartphone major, dissolved its semiconductor branch, casting more doubt on the future of China’s advanced chipmaking sector.