Huawei plans to produce 3nm chips in 2026 — media

Huawei is developing its own production line for true 5nm chips, without using EUV lithography equipment. At the same time, the company is already working on 3nm chips, which are in the research and development stage, with production scheduled for 2026, UDN reports.

Due to sanctions, Huawei does not have access to the standard EUV technology patented by Dutch company ASML. Instead, the Chinese manufacturer uses SSA800 lithography machines with multilayer exposure from Shanghai Micro Electronics (SMEE).

The development of 3nm chips is taking place in two directions: the first is the GAA architecture used by TSMC and Samsung, and the second is experimental chips based on carbon nanotubes. Such chips have already passed laboratory testing and are now being adapted for production on SMIC lines.

Incidentally, earlier this month Huawei introduced the MateBook Fold with the Kirin X90 processor. While the company calls it "5nm," it's actually a 7nm design with advanced packaging. It delivers performance comparable to 5nm chips, but the yield of the finished chips is only 50%, which is very low and makes them more expensive to produce.

Recall, recently, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang said that he considers US export restrictions on chips for China a failure. According to him, these restrictions have hurt American companies themselves more than their Chinese competitors. Although Chinese companies lag behind in technology, many analysts believe that US sanctions have encouraged China to develop its own chip industry more actively, which has accelerated the narrowing of the gap with American manufacturers.