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Huawei plans to mass produce the Ascend 910C chip in early 2025. Photo: Huawei

Huawei has already sent some samples of the Ascend 910C to some customers and has begun taking pre-orders, according to the source. The chip is manufactured by China’s largest foundry, SMIC, using the N+2 process, but the lack of advanced lithography machines has resulted in a yield rate of only 20%.

Meanwhile, modern chips need to achieve yields of more than 70% to be commercially viable.

Even Huawei's latest chip – the Ascend 910B – is only at around 50% yield, forcing the company to reduce production targets and delay order fulfillment.

ByteDance, owner of the short -video app TikTok, reportedly ordered more than 100,000 Ascend 910B chips this year, but only received nearly 30,000 units by July. Other Chinese tech companies have complained about similar problems.

Due to the 2020 US embargo, China has been unable to buy EUV printers from ASML of the Netherlands. ASML also stopped selling DUV deep ultraviolet lithography machines to the country following export restrictions imposed by the US government last year. With no short-term solution, Huawei is prioritizing institutional and government orders.

US authorities are planning export controls on the semiconductor industry and further restricting exports to Chinese companies.

President-elect Donald Trump will return to the White House in January 2025. During his first term (2017-2021), he introduced tough trade policies with Beijing.

(According to Huawei Central)