The writer is author of ‘Chip War’What is the significance of Huawei’s new smartphone chip? The controversial Chinese telecoms company has attracted headlines because its new Mate 60 Pro phone has a sophisticated homegrown chip. SMIC, the Chinese chipmaker that Huawei collaborated with, has never previously made such an advanced semiconductor.
The chip industry is divided on what this means. On the one hand, SMIC has succeeded only in replicating a manufacturing process — called 7 nanometre — that Taiwan’s TSMC, the world’s leading chipmaker, was already producing at high volume in 2018. SMIC generally lags half a decade behind TSMC in rolling out new manufacturing processes so, by that metric, the Chinese company’s 7nm process has arrived right on schedule.
Moreover, to produce Huawei’s chips, SMIC has used DUV lithography machines rather than more advanced EUV tools, which it is barred from buying. Foreign chipmakers such as TSMC and Intel learnt how to produce 7nm chips with DUV machines years ago, before turning to more efficient EUV tools. SMIC’s manufacturing costs are thus probably only competitive because the Chinese state is footing the bill. The company’s 7mn chip is, then, far from an unprecedented breakthrough.