2023-09-06 13:45:09
In Shanghai (China), July 6, 2023. WANG ZHAO / AFP
For the past week, the Chinese media and experts have been celebrating a victory for Chinese innovation: the marketing of Huawei’s latest smartphone, the Mate 60 Pro, available for order since August 29, once again includes 5G connection capabilities, despite the US sanctions that prevent the Chinese telecom giant from obtaining these chips.
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This technological success also raises a lot of questions for semiconductor experts, including in Washington, where some are wondering if the sanctions should not be reinforced to prevent Huawei from continuing to innovate.
The Chinese brand has been discreet about the technical characteristics of its latest premium smartphone: the company does not even mention 5G in its communication. Specialized journalists noticed this when they received the devices to test them.
Experts multiply the conjectures
Huawei’s last smartphone equipped with 5G dated from 2020: it was equipped with chips developed by HiSilicon, a subsidiary of Huawei, but engraved by TSMC, the Taiwanese market leader. Washington’s sanctions against the company, tightened every year since 2019, had got the better of 5G for the following phones, causing sales to drop for Huawei in 2021 and 2022. In October 2022, the United States had extended the sanctions to the entire Chinese semiconductor industry, in theory preventing Huawei from finding alternatives to burn its chips.
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With the Mate 60 Pro, the company proves that it has resources. In the absence of published details on the contents of its chips, experts multiply the conjectures: did the company use old stocks from 2020? Has it succeeded in replacing Western and Japanese machines to rise to world standards in chip production?
According to TechInsights, a specialized firm mandated by Bloomberg, the circuits of the Kirin 9000s chips that equip the smartphone were produced by SMIC, the Chinese leader in the production of electronic chips. They are printed at a fineness of 7 nanometers, two generations behind the chips of the next iPhone 15, engraved by TSMC at 3 nanometers, a fineness that allows more power to be concentrated while consuming less energy.
“Extremely symbolic”
“For China, this breakthrough is extremely symbolic, as it shows that the massive efforts of the US government and its allies have failed to prevent Huawei from moving up the technology curve.”, says Paul Triolo, a semiconductor specialist at the Paulson Institute in Washington. For him, however, Huawei may have more difficulty producing competitive chips in the years to come, while competition will continue to descend towards the infinitely small.
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