• Home
• Fin tech

Huawei is building a production line for advanced chips as part of a network of semiconductor facilities in Shenzhen that seeks to break China’s dependence on foreign technologies.

The tech giant is the key player behind three manufacturing sites in Guanlan, a district of the southern city where Huawei is based, according to multiple people familiar with the matter and visits near the locations by the Financial Times.

Satellite imagery obtained by the FT shows how the Guanlan factories, built in the same distinctive style, have been rapidly developed after construction started in 2022.

The facilities, details of which have not been reported previously, demonstrate Huawei’s ambitions to become a semiconductor leader, boosting China’s effort to challenge the US in developing technologies such as artificial intelligence.

“Huawei has embarked on an unprecedented effort to develop every part of the AI supply chain domestically from wafer fabrication equipment to model building,” said Dylan Patel, founder of chip consultancy SemiAnalysis. “We have never seen one company attempt to do everything before.”

Huawei operates one of the sites, according to people with knowledge of the matter, who said it would make its 7-nanometre smartphone and Ascend AI processors — the company’s first effort to manufacture its own high-end chips.

Two other sites completed last year are operated by chip equipment maker SiCarrier and memory-chip maker SwaySure. While Huawei denies links with the two start-ups, industry insiders said the company was connected to the groups by helping to raise investment and sharing staff and technology.

Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email [email protected] to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found at https://www.ft.com/tour.

The facilities also have financial backing from the Shenzhen government, according to those with knowledge of the sites.

Huawei is involved in projects that aim to develop alternatives to technology from chip designer Nvidia, equipment maker ASML, memory-chip maker SK Hynix, and contract manufacturer Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.

Huawei’s chip efforts accelerated after Washington imposed sanctions in 2019 and cut the company off from critical foreign technology. Its work forms part of a broader government push to localise critical components in the face of US export controls designed to stymie Chinese tech development.