SMIC, The Chinese Chipmaker That Supplied Huawei The Kirin 9000S, Violated U.S. Sanctions, Claims U.S. Congressman

The Kirin 9000S found in Huawei's latest flagship smartphone, the Mate 60 Pro 5G, would not have been possible without the involvement of SMIC, a Chinese chipmaker that leveraged its second-generation 7nm process to mass produce the SoC. However, one U.S. congressman believes that stricter sanctions should be placed on both SMIC and Huawei as the trade between them should not have happened. SMIC should have obtained an export license before providing Huawei with Kirin 9000S shipments The 7nm manufacturing process used to mass produce the Kirin 9000S lags behind the cutting-edge 3nm node from TSMC, but experts state that…