This Is How Huawei Shocked America With a Smartphone

Introduction (0s)

• The Huawei smartphone’s microprocessor demonstrates China's advancement and has become a point of US-China tensions.
• The phone symbolizes China's pursuit of a self-sufficient chip industry and challenges US efforts to limit China’s access to technology.
• US officials are concerned about the transfer of advanced chip technology to Chinese military uses.

US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo’s Beijing trip (1m14s)

• Gina Raimondo’s trip to China aimed to ease tensions over issues including technology trade.
• The US has tried to prevent China from acquiring advanced semiconductors, citing national security and economic restrictions.
• Raimondo's visit was eclipsed by the release of the Huawei Mate 60, which sold out quickly, signaling China's defiance against US technological restrictions.

Behind the Bloomberg Mate 60 Pro teardown (2m32s)

• Huawei’s Mate 60 is powered by a chip designed by Huawei and manufactured by China's largest chipmaker, SMIC.
• The chip uses seven-nanometer technology, which is closer to the current state-of-the-art than the US expected, suggesting China is only a few years behind.
• US sanctions previously cut off Huawei's access to TSMC’s manufacturing, driving China to seek alternatives.

How Huawei and SMIC pulled it off (4m37s)

• Huawei and SMIC found ways to circumvent the lack of advanced Western chipmaking technology.
• SMIC utilized older DUV (deep ultraviolet) lithography machines from ASML, instead of the more advanced EUV (extreme ultraviolet) machines forbidden by export controls, to push beyond expected technological limits.
• Questions remain on how SMIC managed to produce advanced components with these limitations.