CNBC reported on May 25, 2026 from Shanghai that Huawei unveiled a new semiconductor engineering approach called LogicFolding and framed it within a τ Scaling Law research narrative, as U.S. export restrictions limit Nvidia's access to China's high-end AI chip market.
What Huawei announced
- Tingbo He, president of Huawei's semiconductor business, presented at the IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems on Monday, May 25, 2026.
- Huawei said Kirin smartphone chips launching this fall will be the first commercial chips using LogicFolding, expanding layouts from one layer to two for improved power efficiency.
- The company targets capabilities equivalent to 1.4-nanometer process technology by 2031, while TSMC has begun volume production of 2-nanometer chips, CNBC notes.
- Huawei said it has designed and mass-produced 381 chips based on the τ approach over the last six years.
Competitive and analyst context cited by CNBC
- CNBC links the announcement to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang telling CNBC the prior week that Nvidia has "largely conceded" China's AI chip market to Huawei.
- George Chen of The Asia Group told CNBC the trajectory may narrow Nvidia's window to sell advanced chips such as the H200 into China.
- Paul Triolo (DGA Group) said stacked/folded designs can raise effective density but do not prove full 1.4 nm-class manufacturing without solving yield, power, thermal, and device-performance challenges—especially without ASML EUV tools.
- Neil Shah (Counterpoint Research) warned of thermal and packaging complexity and said scaling to AI datacenters would be the "ultimate litmus test" for China's workaround to Western sanctions.
- CNBC recounts Huawei's 2023 Mate 60 5G return as part of renewed smartphone competition with Apple in China.
Primary source: CNBC — Huawei plans new smartphone chips this fall as rivalry with Nvidia and Apple heats up (May 25, 2026).