Huawei, SMIC Face Setbacks in Advancing to 5-nm Chip Technology

Huawei Technologies and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) are still struggling to move beyond 7-nanometre chip production, according to a recent analysis of Huawei’s latest laptop.

Credit: HAUWEI

TechInsights, a Canadian research firm, found that Huawei’s new MateBook Fold Ultimate Design laptop uses the Kirin X90 chip, built on SMIC’s 7-nm process. This is the same chip technology used in Huawei’s Mate 60 Pro smartphone nearly two years ago.

Credit: SMIC

The finding suggests that Huawei has not yet transitioned to SMIC’s 5-nm process, which remains difficult to scale due to US sanctions restricting access to advanced chipmaking equipment.

The MateBook Fold, unveiled in May, is Huawei’s first laptop with a foldable display. It runs on the company’s HarmonyOS operating system and is positioned to compete with similar devices from Lenovo and HP.

The continued reliance on 7-nm chips indicates that Huawei remains several generations behind US competitors such as Apple, which has used Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company’s (TSMC) 3-nm process for its M-series chips over the past two years.

Huawei has faced significant challenges since being added to the US trade blacklist in 2019, which cut off access to semiconductors made with US-origin technology. TSMC stopped shipping chips to Huawei in 2020 to comply with the sanctions.

Despite these setbacks, Huawei has made progress in artificial intelligence chips. Analysts at Mizuho Securities estimate the company will ship about 700,000 units of its Ascend 910 series AI processors this year, although SMIC continues to face yield issues with its 7-nm process.

Huawei founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei recently acknowledged that the company’s AI chips are still a generation behind those from the US. However, he said performance could be improved through methods such as stacking and clustering.

TechInsights noted that SMIC’s 5-nm process remains out of reach. The Kirin X90 chip is still produced using SMIC’s N+2 process, indicating that a scalable 5-nm equivalent node has not yet been achieved.

Meanwhile, global chipmakers continue to advance. TSMC expects to begin mass production using its 2-nm node in 2025, while Samsung Electronics is reportedly targeting early 2026 for the same milestone.

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• Huawei’s MateBook Fold uses a 7-nm Kirin chip made by SMIC

• TechInsights found no evidence of 5-nm chip production

• US sanctions continue to limit Huawei’s chipmaking capabilities

Source: SCMP