US Doubts Performance, Yield of Huawei’s Advanced Chip
(Bloomberg) -- The US doubts whether Huawei Technologies Co. can produce the advanced chip in its new smartphone at the scale or performance threshold necessary to meet market demand, a senior Commerce Department official told lawmakers Tuesday.
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“Neither the performance nor yields may match the market of the device,” Thea Kendler, assistant secretary for export administration, said during testimony before a House Foreign Affairs Committee oversight panel.
“Moreover, the semiconductor chip that is inside that phone is a poorer performance than what they had years ago,” Kendler said. “So our export controls are meaningful in slowing China’s advanced technology acquisition.”
Read More: Raimondo Says No Evidence China Can Make Advanced Chips at Scale
The Biden administration has issued sweeping curbs on shipments of advanced semiconductor chips and equipment to China, and the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security tightened those controls this past October to capture more chips and tools.
But despite those curbs and parallel restrictions imposed by US allies, Huawei and its chipmaking partner Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. debuted a 7-nanometer chip in late August. The phone containing that processor, which went on sale while Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo was visiting China, marked a new phase in the tech cold war and sparked a debate in Washington about the best strategy to contain Beijing’s technological prowess.
BIS said in early September that it’s probing the “purported” 7-nanometer chip, and had otherwise stayed quiet on the Huawei breakthrough until Kendler’s remarks on Tuesday.
Read More: US Probes Made-in-China Chip as Tensions Flare Over Technology
“We share your concerns about the technological development,” Kendler said when asked about Huawei’s technological capabilities.
BIS is under pressure from Republicans to be tougher on Huawei and SMIC. Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul and others have called for the BIS to fully cut off both firms from their American suppliers.
Raimondo told Bloomberg News in a Monday interview that the US will take the “strongest possible” action to protect its national security following the breakthrough, while declining to confirm the existence of an investigation into Huawei or SMIC.
Read More: Raimondo Vows ‘Strongest’ Action After Huawei’s Breakthrough
(Updates with additional Kendler comment from seventh paragraph.)
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