SHANGHAI: Chinese tech giant Huawei said on Monday it had developed a new way of making semiconductors that could get around its US-enforced lack of access to the most advanced chipmaking equipment.

Huawei has been at the centre of a geopolitical standoff in recent years after Washington warned its equipment could be used by the Chinese government for espionage, an allegation the firm denies.

Sanctions since 2019 have cut Huawei’s access to components and technologies made by the US and some of its allies -- including the lithography machines used to make the world’s most advanced chips.

However, the head of Huawei’s semiconductor division He Tingbo said on Monday that the company will be able to produce chips equivalent to next-generation 1.4-nanometre (1.4nm) ones by 2031.

Taiwan’s TSMC, the industry leader, has projected it will be able to do the same by 2028.

Cutting-edge chips that can train and power artificial intelligence systems are a crucial and highly sensitive element of the technology rivalry between the US and China.

The computing power of chips has increased dramatically over the decades as makers cram them with more microscopic electronic components.

Huawei’s announcement suggests it might have sidestepped the need for extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines, which have been considered crucial for mass manufacturing chips of 5nm or under.

“Over the past six years, I have often been asked... how did you survive and come back on top?” He said in a presentation to the International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS) in Shanghai.

She said the new technique came about through a shift in how chipmaking has been conceptualised historically.

“Moore’s Law”, a principle developed by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, states that the number of transistors ­— devices regulating the flow of electricity — on a chip doubles every two years.

Published in Dawn, May 26th, 2026