Chinese technology giant Huawei has quickly expanded its production facilities for advanced chips, building a manufacturing network in Shenzhen, according to a report by the Financial Times.
Through multiple satellite images, the Financial Times reported that the US-sanctioned smartphone maker — and now China’s leading chip player — had rapidly developed three manufacturing sites in its home city in Guangdong province since 2022. The facilities also have financial backing from Shenzhen.
While Huawei operates one of the sites, the other two are run by chip equipment maker SiCarrier and memory-chip maker SwaySure, the FT report said, citing people with knowledge of the matter.
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The company aims to use the site it runs to make its 7-nanometre smartphone and Ascend AI chips, it said, while Huawei helps the other two firms raise investment and all three share staff and technology. Huawei has previously denied links with the two start-ups, both of which were sanctioned by the US last year.
The FT report noted that the facilities are in line with Huawei’s ambition to become a key player in China’s semiconductor industry.
The firm is currently preparing to test its most powerful artificial intelligence processor, which it hopes can compete with Nvidia, and be more powerful than the H100 chip from its rival. The H100 is widely used for AI processes but Nvidia is banned from selling the chip in China.
Huawei is also investing in semiconductor manufacturing facilities, according to the FT. Through its expansion, Huawei is hoping to take on global chip industry leaders such as Nvidia, dominant chip tools maker ASML, the world’s largest contract chipmaker TSMC, and South Korean memory-chip maker giant SK Hynix.
“Huawei has embarked on an unprecedented effort to develop every part of the AI supply chain domestically from wafer fabrication equipment to model building,” Dylan Patel, founder of chip consultancy SemiAnalysis, told the Financial Times.
“We have never seen one company attempt to do everything before.”
- Vishakha Saxena
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