Exclusive-Huawei aims to mass produce new AI chip by early 2025, despite US blackout
Written by Fanny Potkin
(Reuters) – China’s Huawei plans to begin mass production of its advanced intelligence chip in the first half of 2025, as it struggles to make enough chips due to U.S. restrictions, two people familiar with the matter said.
The telecoms conglomerate has sent samples of the Ascend 910C – its new chip, aimed at competing with AI chip maker Nvidia – to other technology companies and started taking orders, sources told Reuters.
Huawei is at the heart of the US-China dispute over trade and security. Washington has put a series of measures to prevent Huawei and other Chinese companies, arguing that their technological advances pose a national security threat to the US. Beijing, which is trying to make the world’s second largest economy self-sufficient in advanced semiconductors, denies these allegations. .
The restrictions have hampered Huawei’s ability to get the yield — the fraction of chips coming off a fully operational production line — of its advanced AI chips high enough to be commercially viable.
The 910C is made by leading Chinese contract manufacturer Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) for its N+2 process, but a lack of advanced lithography equipment has limited the chip yield to about 20%, said a source briefed on the results. .
Advanced chips require a yield of more than 70% to be commercially viable.
Even Huawei’s current most advanced processor, the SMIC-made 910B, has a yield of only about 50%, forcing Huawei to lower production targets and delay filling orders for that chip, the sources said.
Huawei and SMIC did not respond to requests for comment on Thursday.
US RESTRICTIONS bite
TikTok’s Chinese parent, ByteDance, ordered more than 100,000 Ascend 910B chips this year but received fewer than 30,000 as of July, a pace too slow to meet the company’s needs, Reuters reported in September. Other Chinese technology companies that have ordered from Huawei have complained of similar problems, the sources said.
The US curbs include blocking China from 2020 from acquiring advanced ultraviolet lithography (EUV) technology from Dutch manufacturer ASML, which is used to make the world’s most advanced processors.
“Huawei knows that there is no short-term solution, given the lack of EUVs, so it will prioritize government strategies and corporate orders,” the source said.
ASML also stopped shipping its most advanced ultraviolet lithography (DUV) equipment to China due to regulations imposed by the Biden administration last year. Some fabrics are also restricted from purchasing older ASML DUV models.
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