Huawei, SMIC used US tech to make advanced chips: Report

Huawei Technologies and its partner Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) relied on US technology to produce an advanced chip in China last year, according to people with knowledge of the matter. 

Shanghai-based SMIC used gear from California-based Applied Materials and Lam Research to manufacture an advanced 7-nanometre chip for Huawei in 2023, the people said, asking not to be named as the details are not public. 

The previously unreported information suggests that China still cannot entirely replace certain foreign components and equipment required for cutting-edge products like semiconductors.

The country has made technological self-sufficiency a national priority and Huawei’s efforts to advance domestic chip design and manufacturing have received the backing of Beijing.

Representatives of SMIC, Huawei and Lam did not respond to requests for comment. Applied Materials and the US Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security, which is responsible for implementing export controls, declined to comment.

Lauded in China as a major leap in indigenous semiconductor fabrication, last year’s SMIC-made processor powered Huawei’s Mate 60 Pro and a wave of patriotic smartphone-buying in the world's second-largest economy.

The chip is still generations behind the top components from global firms, but ahead of where the US hoped to stop China’s advance.

The machinery used to make it, however, still had foreign sources including technology from Dutch maker ASML Holding, as well as gear from Lam and Applied Materials.

Sources reported in October that SMIC had used equipment from ASML for the chip breakthrough.