Huawei working on a 'self-sufficient chip network'

Huawei's interest in SiCarrier is for their Lithography services. (Promotional image for the Huawei P60 series smartphones)

Chinese telecom equipment giant Huawei is using government investment to create a "self-sufficient chip network". A Bloomberg investigation has revealed a Shenzhen city government investment fund, created in 2019, has been funding the project.

The revelations come at a time when the United States has imposed curbs on the sale of advanced chips to China.

The report says if the network comes online, it would give Huawei access to enterprises, specifically, three subsidiaries from a firm called SiCarrier. Huawei's interest in SiCarrier is for its lithography services.

Lithography is a critical step in the chip-fabrication process. Several variants of the technique like extreme ultraviolet are currently restricted in China due to the sanctions imposed upon the country.

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The two firms seem to have a close relationship, with Huawei even letting SiCarrier's top engineers work on its production sites. The report says that Huawei transferred "about a dozen patents to SiCarrier".

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Sources told Bloomberg that Huawei has also hired several former employees from Dutch Lithography company, ASML. They have managed to make an in-house 7nm HiSilicon Kirin 9000S processor that is said to be five years behind the competition instead of the eight years intended by the export bans.

If Huawei succeeds, the company will have to rely less on imports and give it a reliable network of enterprises that will allow it to fabricate chips locally.