Last year, Huawei surprised everyone with the launch of the Mate 60 series which came with a new Kirin chipset built on the 7nm process. This year, the company is set to defy the odds yet again with the Huawei Mate 70 series which could launch with a new 5nm Kirin 9100 chipset.
Why is this surprising? Right now, a lot of phone makers are taking advantage of 3nm chipsets. Companies like Samsung and TSMC are already working on 2nm chipsets, so why is 5nm a big deal? This is because of the sanctions placed against Huawei. The sanctions prevent Huawei from leverage advanced semiconductor technology that would allow them to make chipsets that other companies are making.
This has resulted in Huawei and their partners to come up with new ways to get around the issue. If these methods have already allowed them to create a 5nm chipset, it probably won’t be too long before they figure out how to make 3nm chipsets. Once that happens, Huawei could very well be back on the path to dominance.
Prior to the sanctions, Huawei was already climbing its way to the top. Obviously losing access to the US market and being hit with all kinds of restrictions did hurt the company. Huawei has since figured out alternative solutions. One of those is by launching its own HarmonyOS as a competitor to Google’s Android. Huawei is expected to launch the Mate 70 series later this year. We’ll have to wait and see if the 5nm Kirin 9100 chipset makes its debut then.