Huawei affiliates parade products that fuel China chip ambitions
[SHENZHEN] Huawei Technologies’ key partners are showcasing a dizzying array of products from software to chip gear, just days after US President Donald Trump threatened more curbs on China’s access to advanced technologies.
From DeepSeek to Huawei, Chinese companies are increasingly publicising their progress in sensitive technologies, seeking to demonstrate that years of US sanctions have not completely stalled their advance.
State-backed Shenzhen SiCarrier Technology was one of several Huawei affiliates that displayed products during a semiconductor conference on Wednesday (Oct 15). The company, which Washington has blacklisted since 2024, advertised etching and deposition equipment.
Across the hall, subsidiary Shenzhen Longsight Technology unveiled an oscilloscope that it said can support the development of advanced chips.
Wuhan Qiyunfang Technology, another SiCarrier unit, promoted its own electronics design software.
All three exhibitors at the expo are close partners of Huawei, the standard-bearer for China’s campaign to catch up with the US in critical spheres from chips to artificial intelligence (AI).
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The public display, in Huawei’s hometown of Shenzhen, underscores the advances that local chip firms are making as they heed Beijing’s call to replace American circuitry and software.
But it also highlighted the gap that remains. SiCarrier’s gear competes mainly with older products from US suppliers Applied Materials and Lam Research.
Trump said four days ago he would consider banning software from China in retaliation against Beijing’s move to restrict exports of rare earth magnets, required to make a plethora of products from chipmaking equipment to electric vehicles.
There were few products at the Shenzhen expo based on lithography-related technology, which remains a critical choke point for Chinese firms.
In September 2025, Huawei took the rare step of publicising a three-year vision for eroding Nvidia’s dominance in the AI boom.
ASML Holding has a monopoly over the most sophisticated systems, required for making chips such as Nvidia accelerators capable of training AI. It has not shipped any top-of-the-line machines to China due to export controls.
The latest research from Canadian research firm TechInsights showed Huawei still relies on semiconductor components from foreign companies to assemble its latest AI chips, a sign that lithography and other more complex spheres were hampering technological progress.
SiCarrier so far has not said publicly it is working on lithography systems. But it was granted a patent in 2023 that employs deep ultraviolet lithography machines to achieve certain technical thresholds seen on advanced 5-nanometre chips. BLOOMBERG
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