China’s Huawei reveals chip design breakthrough amid US sanctions

Huawei Technologies said on Monday, May 25, its high-end chips will have transistor density equivalent to 1.4-nanometer processes in five years, underscoring Beijing’s efforts to neutralize US sanctions that have made it hard for China to build advanced chips. Huawei did not provide independent performance data, but the target, unveiled at a semiconductor symposium in Shanghai, is significant because 1.4 nm is expected to be close to the global frontier for advanced chipmaking around the end of the decade. China is widely seen as unlikely to reach that level through conventional manufacturing alone because Washington has restricted its access to…