Huawei's latest handset uses improved China-made chip, report shows

(Reuters) - The Kirin 9030, the chip that powers Huawei Technologies' latest flagship Mate 80 series handset, has been manufactured by China's top foundry SMIC with an improved version of 7 nanometres, which is still behind TSMC and Samsung, Canadian research firm TechInsights said.

The Kirin 9030 is manufactured using SMIC's N+3 process, a "scaled extension" of its previous 7 nanometer (N+2) node, TechInsights said in a report published on December 8.

"However, in absolute terms, N+3 remains substantially less scaled than industry 5 (nanometer) processes from TSMC and Samsung," it said.

Huawei and SMIC did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours.

In October, China added TechInsights, which has been publishing regularly reports on Huawei and SMIC’s chip progress, to its unreliable entity list.