Huawei's latest AI chips, promoted as a milestone in China's push for technological self-reliance, continue to rely on critical components from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (NYSE:TSM), Samsung (OTC:SSNLF), and SK Hynix, a teardown by TechInsights reveals.
The findings highlight China's continued dependence on foreign hardware, even as Beijing pushes to expand its domestic semiconductor capabilities, Bloomberg reported on Friday.
The report found that Taiwan Semiconductor produced the dies powering Huawei's Ascend 910C processors, while Samsung and SK Hynix supplied older-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM2E) used in separate chip samples.
Also Read: Taiwan Semiconductor Halts Shipments After Huawei Link Discovered, US Sanctions Cited
Both Korean companies emphasized to Bloomberg that they halted sales to Huawei following U.S. export controls in 2020 and remain compliant with American regulations. Huawei, added to the U.S. Entity List under President Donald Trump, did not comment during China's Golden Week holiday.
U.S. authorities have tightened controls on AI chips, HBM memory, and the equipment required to manufacture them, aiming to limit Beijing's ability to challenge Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) in advanced computing.
Despite these restrictions, Huawei has leveraged its stockpiled inventory. Analysts estimate the company acquired nearly 3 million Taiwan Semiconductor dies through intermediary Sophgo before sanctions severed the channel, and these continue to power the 910C chips, which entered mass shipment earlier this year.
Still, supply risks are mounting. SemiAnalysis projects Huawei could face high-bandwidth memory shortages by the end of 2025 as domestic players like Changxin Memory Technologies (CXMT) race to bridge the gap.
The pressure on Huawei's supply chain intensified after reports in December 2024 suggested the Biden administration was considering blacklisting Sophgo.
Investigators discovered a Taiwan Semiconductor chip inside Huawei's Ascend 910B processor, prompting Taiwan Semiconductor to halt shipments to Sophgo and notify the U.S. Commerce Department.
Washington flagged Sophgo, an affiliate of Bitcoin miner Bitmain and a supplier to Chinese state firms, as a national security concern.
Huawei is pressing ahead with efforts to rival Nvidia in terms of AI performance. At its annual Huawei Connect conference, rotating Chairman Eric Xu unveiled a three-year plan to cluster large numbers of Ascend processors via a new UnifiedBus interconnect system, claiming it can transfer data up to 62 times faster than Nvidia's upcoming NVLink144.
The presentation underscored Beijing's strategy of supporting Huawei as a national champion amid U.S. curbs, even as analysts caution that Huawei's chips still trail Nvidia's in raw processing power and remain at 7-nanometer designs.
Huawei's high-profile chip rollout reflects China's ambition to achieve technological sovereignty, but analysts warn that supply chain vulnerabilities could slow its advance.
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