Huawei Smartphone Semiconductors Manufactured Using Technology from Two US Companies

China's Huawei, in collaboration with the country's largest foundry semiconductor manufacturer SMIC, has developed semiconductor chips installed in the latest smartphones that are claimed to have been made using American technology.

Bloomberg reported on the 7th (local time), citing anonymous sources, that SMIC used equipment from American semiconductor equipment companies Applied Materials and Lam Research to produce semiconductor chips with advanced 7nm (nanometer, one billionth of a meter) process technology for supply to Huawei last year. It is also known to include technology from the Dutch semiconductor equipment company ASML.

It was confirmed that semiconductor chips manufactured by SMIC last year were installed in Huawei's latest smartphone, the 'Mate 60 Pro,' which surprised the world. Despite U.S. sanctions aimed at blocking China's access to advanced technology, China's semiconductor manufacturing technology is considered to have made significant progress. This also sparked a wave of patriotic consumer enthusiasm within China.

However, this fact has led to analysis that China has not yet fully replaced certain foreign components and equipment necessary for advanced devices. Some say that SMIC secured various equipment from American equipment companies before the U.S. export controls were implemented in October 2022. While China's leading semiconductor equipment companies are striving to catch up with their American competitors, they have yet to produce sophisticated equipment.

China's state-owned lithography equipment company Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment (SMEE) is still several generations behind ASML, which boasts the world's leading technology in this field. U.S. Department of Commerce officials also said, "We have not confirmed evidence that SMIC can mass-produce 7nm chips," and ASML's CEO Peter Wennink agreed with this assessment.

However, the evaluation of China's advanced technology is mixed, as Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, a leading company in the artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor industry, named Huawei a "formidable rival" at the end of last year. Bloomberg added that Huawei remains the company most likely to compete with the U.S. within China.