The Chinese tech giant says its new stacked-chip architecture can deliver transistor density equivalent to 1.4nm processes by 2031, without access to advanced lithography tools
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Huawei unveiled a chip architecture on Monday that folds traditional flat circuits into vertical, stacked structures, which the company says will allow it to produce chips with transistor density equivalent to 1.4-nanometer processes by 2031 — without relying on advanced manufacturing equipment it cannot access under U.S. sanctions.
He Tingbo, president of Huawei's semiconductor business, presented the approach at the IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems in Shanghai. The technique, called LogicFolding, shortens the wiring inside chips by expanding circuit layouts from one layer to two, which the company said reduces signal travel time and raises transistor density.
Huawei paired the announcement with a new guiding principle it calls the Tau Scaling Law, which replaces the traditional goal of shrinking transistors — the basis of Moore's Law — with a focus on cutting the time it takes signals and data to move through chips and computing systems.
To appreciate the ambition behind that figure, it helps to know that 7nm represents roughly the ceiling of what China's domestic chipmakers have been able to reliably demonstrate, according to Reuters. For comparison, TSMC $TSM — the Taiwan-based foundry that sits at the top of the global chip industry — is already running volume production at 2nm and has a 1.4nm process slated for mass production in 2028, according to NBC News.
LogicFolding will make its commercial debut in Kirin smartphone chips set to hit the market in fall 2026, the company said. Since adopting the Tau Scaling Law as a guiding framework, the company's chip division has brought 381 chips to mass production over the past six years, spanning smartphones and AI computing applications. The approach is also expected to be applied to its Ascend AI chips by 2030.
He Tingbo did not shy away from the obstacles ahead, pointing to two in particular: existing chip-design software is poorly equipped for the new architecture, and the vertical stacking of components creates heat dissipation problems that grow more acute as the technology scales toward data-center applications. "Given all the various constraints, we have found some pretty good solutions," she told Reuters. "I can confidently say in the coming 10 years our solutions for mobile computing and AI computing will be competitive."
Analysts raised questions about the scope of the claim. "A stacked/folded design can produce effective density gains, but it does not mean Huawei has solved the full process, yield, power, thermal, and device-performance problems associated with true 1.4nm-class manufacturing," Paul Triolo, head of technology at DGA Group, told CNBC.
The claims were not accompanied by third-party verification or independent benchmarking data, according to Reuters. The company was placed on a U.S. trade blacklist in 2019 that cut off access to many American-origin technologies. Its fortunes began to turn in 2023, when the Mate 60 series arrived with a domestically produced 5G system-on-chip — manufactured by Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp at the 7nm node — surprising industry observers who had questioned how much the sanctions were biting. Shares of SMIC jumped 7.6% on the day of the announcement, according to Reuters.
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