TechInsights teardown: Huawei's Mate 60 Pro uses a new Kirin 9000s chip that was fabricated in China by SMIC using a 7nm process, a blow to US sanctions
The company's Mate 60 Pro is powered by SMIC's 7nm chips, according to analysis that TechInsights conducted for Bloomberg News
The finding became a benchmark for later Huawei devices: the Pura 70 was also found to use a related 7nm Kirin design, and the MateBook Fold likewise used an SMIC 7nm chip, extending the pattern beyond one handset line.
First-order effects
Huawei gains a commercially visible phone platform built around its Kirin 9000s, while SMIC gains validation that it can fabricate this class of chip in China.
US policymakers face pressure to assess whether existing controls leave production pathways available to SMIC and Huawei, rather than judging their effect solely by formal restrictions.
Huawei’s subsequent use of related SMIC-made 7nm chips in the Pura 70 and later products makes the supply arrangement more consequential for its device roadmap and for competing Chinese component suppliers.
Third-order effects
If repeat deployments continue, export controls may increasingly shape the performance ceiling and pace of domestic chip development rather than fully preventing advanced-node products.
The episode points to a more bifurcated hardware supply chain, in which technology access is determined not only by leading-edge capability but by whether firms can sustain domestic alternatives under trade restrictions.
The trend: This is an early marker of China’s push to turn constrained access to foreign chipmaking into a durable domestic compute supply chain.
With export controls last year, the US tried to draw a line at preventing China from getting access to 14nm chips, eight years behind the most advanced technology. Now China has demonstrated it can produce at least limited quantities of chips five years behind the cutting-edge.
This was always inevitable, and another clear-cut sign of decoupling - that sanctions against China don't really work in that they only add impetus to China's stated goal of self sufficiency across sectors https://www.bloomberg.com/... via @technology
Remind me of the point of US sanctions — to constrain or incentivize Chinese innovation? As China quickly closes the gap, the US resorts to the CHIPS Act and the failed industrial policies of the past. America's strategic quagmire. https://www.bloomberg.com/...
7bn chip when the export limit is 14nm: “An expert teardown of Huawei's Mate 60 Pro found an advanced processor that signals a breakthrough for Beijing's chipmaking ambitions” https://www.bloomberg.com/...
Much remains unknown about SMIC and Huawei's progress, including whether they can make chips in volume or at reasonable cost. But the Mate 60 silicon raises questions about the efficacy of a US-led global campaign to prevent China's access to cutting-edge technology.
What does Huawei's Mate 60 phone tell us about China's progress in chips? To sort fact from fiction, we tapped @techinsightsinc to take apart the device piece by piece. Here's what we found from @vladsavov @debbywuintaipei https://www.bloomberg.com/...