Despite tightened controls on shipments of advanced AI chips and semiconductor tools to China from U.S. companies, one of the country’s top technology manufacturers was reportedly able to use U.S. technology to make a breakthrough chip last year.
Huawei Technologies and its partner Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC) used tech from California-based Applied Materials Inc. and Lam Research Corp. to make an advanced 7-nanometer chip used in Huawei’s Mate 60 Pro smartphone, sources told Bloomberg.
The chip, which was made with tech from the U.S. companies as well as Dutch semiconductor company ASML Holding NV, is not as advanced as chips from other firms, but is still ahead of where the U.S. wants its chip war rival to be. In October, Bloomberg reported SMIC used tech from ASML to make an advanced chip for Huawei’s smartphone.
SMIC was already in possession of the U.S. tech used to build the chip before the U.S. Department of Commerce barred U.S. companies from supplying Chinese companies with advanced chips and chipmaking equipment in October 2022, sources told Bloomberg. The U.S. also banned the approval of equipment from Huawei and other Chinese companies in November 2022, alleging it posed “an unacceptable risk” to national security.
The commerce department hasn’t seen evidence that the advanced chips can be made “at scale” by SMIC, Bloomberg reported. Neither Huawei, SMIC, Applied Materials, nor Lam Research immediately responded to a request for comment from Quartz.
Huawei saw high demand for its Mate 60 smartphone series in the first six weeks of 2024, while Apple saw its iPhone sales in China fall 24% year-over-year during the same period. However, overall smartphone sales in China were down 7% year-over-year for the first six weeks of the year.