Huawei developing its own chip-building equipment for a hefty price

A recent report from Nikkei Asia informs that Huawei Technologies Co., the Chinese giant, is now working on developing its own chip-building equipment.

As you probably already know, the US has restricted the company’s access to its cutting-edge chip-manufacturing equipment and technologies, that are necessary for its smartphone and other businesses. Washington’s export controls have also prevented overseas companies such as ASML and Nikon from supplying lithography machines to Huawei. These are some of the most important tools in chip manufacturing.

Huawei is seemingly building in-house alternatives to overseas chip-building tools and technologies

Although, Huawei have managed to offer its consumers 5G phones such as the Huawei Mate 60 series, how they built the Kiron 9000s 5G chipset is still shrouded by mystery. In other words, we don’t know if the chip is entirely built on the company’s in-house technologies or if it still has contributions from overseas tools and technologies.

Now the news related to Huawei’s chip development is that they are aiming to develop their own lithography machines and many other necessary tools. Success here means less reliance on the US for building in-house Kirin chips, which is crucial for the company in the current scenario.

To achieve it, Huawei is reportedly investing nearly a whopping 12 billion yuan, which is equivalent to $1.66 billion. The company is building its new R&D center located in the Qingpu district of west Shanghai. The campus also houses a major chip development center, the new headquarters of HiSilicon Technologies (Huawei’s chip design unit), and research centers for wireless technologies and smartphones.

To start and speed up the development of its in-house chip-building equipment and technologies, the company is hiring experienced chip engineers who have previously worked with companies like Intel, TSMC, ASML (the designs and manufactures lithography machines used to make semiconductor chips), Lam Research, KLA and more. The company is reportedly offering as much as double the salary to the new employees as compared to the local chip manufacturers. However, there’s a catch.

Huawei’s work culture is getting more and more overwhelming

All this development reportedly comes at a cost to the chip engineers, says the report. Huawei’s existing 996 work culture is already a bit overwhelming. It means that the working time for its employees is from 9 am to 9 pm for 6 days a week. To Huawei, this was probably not enough to meet their new requirements (chips built completely in-house) in time. Here is an updated work schedule. “It will literally be 007 — from midnight to midnight, seven days a week. No days off at all” informs a chip engineer familiar with the matter. “The contract will be for three years, [but] the majority of people can’t survive till renewal.”