How Huawei made a cutting-edge chip in China and surprised the US
Enlarge (credit: FT)
In late 2020, Huawei was fighting for its survival as a mobile phone maker.
A few months earlier, the Trump administration had hit the Chinese company with crippling sanctions, cutting it off from global semiconductor supply chains.
The sanctions prevented anyone without a permit from making the chips Huawei designed, and the company was struggling to procure new chips to launch more advanced handsets.