NVIDIA FORECLOSING IN CHINA HUAWEI FOR THE WIN

Written by Michael Thervil

NVIDIA FORECLOSING IN CHINA HUAWEI FOR THE WIN | VEDA Communications LLC.

[NVidia foreclosing in China Huawei] Despite American sanctions, China has now appeared to have advanced to the next stage when it comes to semiconductor and chip building. Huawei, China's leading chip and software manufacturer, is currently striving to build a two-dimensional 3nm GAA chip. With the development of this new chip, it would not only offer better computing power, but it will further allow China to be a direct competitor to Nvidia within the chip manufacturing market. Although Huawei’s 5nm Kirin X90 SoC chips have been a game changer, especially in the AI sector, China seems to be all in when it comes to pushing past the international success of it’s Kirin X90C.

This is a big deal in the tech space because instead of going with traditional silicon construction when it comes to building advanced chips, Huawei is currently deploying both a silicon and carbon-based version of its newest chip which features what's known as a “Gate-All-Around” (GAA). Another difference between Huawei carbon and silicon designed chips is that the carbon-based chips will feature nanotubes that are constructed from carbon as the silicon produced chips will have interconnecting silicon transistors. When looking at the overall construction of Huawei's next generation chip, the reason for Huawei choosing to design their newest chip like this is to significantly scale the performance and to lower the chip's consumption of power. The only other chip building firm that has utilized the GAA design has been South Korean competitors Samsung and TSMC.

The full-scale use for public consumption of Huawei's newest chip is not expected to be seen until sometime next year. What's even more impressive is that Huawei is building it’s 3nm chips without the use of ASML, a Dutch company that has not only patented its EUV lithography machines but have been banned by American sanctions when it comes to collaborating with China via the exportation of their chip building machines. But China's Huawei is no stranger to being resourceful, as Huawei will be using the SSA800 made by SMEE (Shanghai Micro Electronics).

While America basks in the glory of knowing that they have stifled Chinese chip manufacturers and Chinese technology. Chinese chip manufacturers and tech firms are revealing in the fact that America sanctions have not only allowed them to wean themselves off of imported technology from the collective west, but America’s sanctions have allowed them to  become even more self-sufficient than they ever were in the past. With that, according to China and Huawei, American sanctions have also allowed Chinese consumers to not only wean themselves off American products such as Apple's i-Phone, but American sanctions have also significantly increased Chinese domestic consumption of their own tech products, while strengthening China's own economy.

Currently, Apple’s i-Phone sales have tanked in China to the tune of not only 9% year-over-year, but in Q4 of 2024, Apple’s i-Phone sales dropped a staggering 18% as Apple was the only major smartphone company to do so. In March of this year, Apple reported a 2.2% decline in terms of i-Phone sales as well as another 7.7% drop in sales during the Q-1 of this year. In contrast Huawei sales soared above 28% with a 10% rise in shipments coming in second to Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi who saw nearly a 40% increase in smartphone shipments.