Huawei founder says USA overestimates its semiconductor prowess
(2025/06/10)
- Reference: 1749540673
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/06/10/huawei_founder_interview_semiconductor_sophistication/
- Source link:
Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei has said the USA overestimates his company’s semiconductor design prowess, which is at least a generation behind rival chipmakers.
In a friendly [1]interview with Communist Party organ People’s Daily, Ren was asked about the USA’s recent [2]claim that Huawei’s “Ascend” AI accelerator chips are based on stolen American tech, meaning anyone using them anywhere therefore violates Washington’s export controls and risks legal action.
“There are many chip companies in China, and many of them are doing well,” Ren replied, before adding “Huawei is one of them.”
[3]
“The United States has exaggerated Huawei's achievements. Huawei is not that great yet. We need to work hard to live up to their evaluation. Our single chip is still one generation behind the United States.”
[4]
[5]
The founder didn’t mention which generation he’s referring to. Nvidia’s current flagship is the Blackwell architecture and if Huawei is a generation behind that it and can match the performance of the Hopper platform it can still produce some mighty powerful kit. If Ren thinks Huawei is a generation behind Nvidia’s next-gen Rubin kit, then China already has AI hardware as powerful as anyone’s.
Asked if China faces difficulties trying to match US tech, Ren said cultivating talent is the main obstacle to China developing advanced semiconductors.
[6]
However the founder also downplayed the need for chip breakthroughs.
“There is no need to worry about the chip problem,” he said. “Using methods such as superposition and clustering, the calculation results are comparable to the most advanced level. In terms of software, there will be hundreds of open-source software to meet the needs of the entire society in the future.”
[7]Eight charged with corruption, money laundering, in case linked to Huawei lobbying
[8]London's poor 5G blamed on spectrum, investment, and timing of Huawei ban
[9]FCC on the prowl for Huawei and other blocked Chinese makers in America
[10]The Register gets its claws on Huawei’s bonkers tri-fold phone
Ren also expressed optimism that China’s [11]“Eastern Data, Western Compute” plan, under which computing workloads are moved to China’s renewable-energy-rich west, will work.
For what it’s worth, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology last week [12]issued a “Computing Power Interconnection Action Plan” that calls for “new high-performance transmission protocols to improve the level of network interconnection between computing power nodes” and “cross-subject, cross-architecture and cross-region computing power supply and demand scheduling.”
People’s Daily asked Ren to predict the future of AI and he responded by saying it may be ”the last technological revolution in human society”, with nuclear fusion another candidate. He predicted AI will “take decades or even hundreds of years” and said China’s large population and highly developed power grid are advantages that will mean it is a strong competitor in the field. ®
Get our [13]Tech Resources
[1] http://sz.people.com.cn/n2/2025/0610/c202846-41254963.html
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/13/trump_ai_exports/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aEgCM16-MsYpXT5Ifr0lIQAAAYo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aEgCM16-MsYpXT5Ifr0lIQAAAYo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aEgCM16-MsYpXT5Ifr0lIQAAAYo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aEgCM16-MsYpXT5Ifr0lIQAAAYo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/08/belgium_arrests_huawei_raid_links/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/25/london_poor_5g_research/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/24/fcc_chinese_telco_huawei/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/03/ithe_registeri_gets_its_claws/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/22/china_west_and_east_datacenter_plan/
[12] https://www.gov.cn/lianbo/bumen/202505/content_7025851.htm
[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
In a friendly [1]interview with Communist Party organ People’s Daily, Ren was asked about the USA’s recent [2]claim that Huawei’s “Ascend” AI accelerator chips are based on stolen American tech, meaning anyone using them anywhere therefore violates Washington’s export controls and risks legal action.
“There are many chip companies in China, and many of them are doing well,” Ren replied, before adding “Huawei is one of them.”
[3]
“The United States has exaggerated Huawei's achievements. Huawei is not that great yet. We need to work hard to live up to their evaluation. Our single chip is still one generation behind the United States.”
[4]
[5]
The founder didn’t mention which generation he’s referring to. Nvidia’s current flagship is the Blackwell architecture and if Huawei is a generation behind that it and can match the performance of the Hopper platform it can still produce some mighty powerful kit. If Ren thinks Huawei is a generation behind Nvidia’s next-gen Rubin kit, then China already has AI hardware as powerful as anyone’s.
Asked if China faces difficulties trying to match US tech, Ren said cultivating talent is the main obstacle to China developing advanced semiconductors.
[6]
However the founder also downplayed the need for chip breakthroughs.
“There is no need to worry about the chip problem,” he said. “Using methods such as superposition and clustering, the calculation results are comparable to the most advanced level. In terms of software, there will be hundreds of open-source software to meet the needs of the entire society in the future.”
[7]Eight charged with corruption, money laundering, in case linked to Huawei lobbying
[8]London's poor 5G blamed on spectrum, investment, and timing of Huawei ban
[9]FCC on the prowl for Huawei and other blocked Chinese makers in America
[10]The Register gets its claws on Huawei’s bonkers tri-fold phone
Ren also expressed optimism that China’s [11]“Eastern Data, Western Compute” plan, under which computing workloads are moved to China’s renewable-energy-rich west, will work.
For what it’s worth, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology last week [12]issued a “Computing Power Interconnection Action Plan” that calls for “new high-performance transmission protocols to improve the level of network interconnection between computing power nodes” and “cross-subject, cross-architecture and cross-region computing power supply and demand scheduling.”
People’s Daily asked Ren to predict the future of AI and he responded by saying it may be ”the last technological revolution in human society”, with nuclear fusion another candidate. He predicted AI will “take decades or even hundreds of years” and said China’s large population and highly developed power grid are advantages that will mean it is a strong competitor in the field. ®
Get our [13]Tech Resources
[1] http://sz.people.com.cn/n2/2025/0610/c202846-41254963.html
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/13/trump_ai_exports/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aEgCM16-MsYpXT5Ifr0lIQAAAYo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aEgCM16-MsYpXT5Ifr0lIQAAAYo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aEgCM16-MsYpXT5Ifr0lIQAAAYo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aEgCM16-MsYpXT5Ifr0lIQAAAYo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/08/belgium_arrests_huawei_raid_links/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/25/london_poor_5g_research/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/24/fcc_chinese_telco_huawei/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/03/ithe_registeri_gets_its_claws/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/22/china_west_and_east_datacenter_plan/
[12] https://www.gov.cn/lianbo/bumen/202505/content_7025851.htm
[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
I keep getting reminded
Will Godfrey
The old adage:
"You can work hard, or work smart".
Cutting out all the crud in modern software would have more influence than trying to force the hardware to higher operating speed (and power consumption).
Re: I keep getting reminded
Anonymous Coward
But that requires programmers who know how to write good efficient & secure code. At the moment, that ain't AI nor most kids coming out of school.
Re: I keep getting reminded
vtcodger
And where are the profits to be found in crafting software that does only what is needed, but does it well?
Much as I'd like to see sensible, well crafted software replace the garbage heap that is the current software side of IT, I can't see that happening unless and until humanity learns the hard way that the software supporting our infrastructure is far too haphazard, insecure, and fragile for the needs of modern civilization.
"Huawei is not that great yet"
Pascal Monett
I'm not so sure, what with all the efforts to get it banned, surely it must be rather good . . .
Playing to the crowd
He knows Trump's negotiating team, now in London, will see this.