Huawei (华为) executive says chips based on “Tao (τ) Law” deployed in Mate 90, claim near‑3nm process

Lead

It has been reported that Zheng Jun (郑俊), CTO of Huawei’s (华为) financial systems unit, told a Shenzhen finance forum that chips developed under a Huawei‑devised design paradigm called the Tao (τ) Law have been deployed in the company’s Mate 90 smartphone and reached “near‑3nm” top‑tier process levels. The claim, reported by Phoenix Finance and picked up by IT之家, positions Huawei as asserting a major advance in chip design and integration despite years of export controls.

Claims and technical details

Zheng reportedly described the τ Law (韬（τ）定律) as a systematized, theory‑driven summary of Huawei’s work across chip architecture, process and engineering paradigms — more than an academic rule, he said, but a practical shift that reconfigures industry collaboration and workflow. It has been reported that chips developed under this model — provisionally linked to the so‑called Kirin 2026 family (麒麟 2026, name not final) — boost transistor density to 238 MTr/mm² (a 53.5% rise over 2D designs) and lift P‑core efficiency by 41%, with a peak P‑core frequency of about 3.1GHz. These figures, and the claim of “near‑3nm” process equivalence, have not been independently verified.

Geopolitical backdrop

Context matters. Washington’s 2019 sanctions on Huawei curtailed access to advanced foundry nodes and spurred China’s push for semiconductor self‑reliance. It has been reported that internal efforts — described in public accounts as the “spare tire” (备胎) program and the large “Moye” (莫邪) working group — mobilized thousands inside Huawei to build domestic alternatives. Beijing’s broader industrial policy and coordinated supply‑chain support are central to how Huawei says it closed gaps in design, packaging and testing to ship more advanced chips.

Implications and verification

If true, the claims would mark a significant step for a major Chinese device maker working within a constrained export‑control environment. But independent verification is critical: process node labels and transistor densities can be framed differently across fabs, and outside foundry confirmations are not yet public. Can Huawei translate internal design paradigms into reproducible, exportable manufacturing that rivals established foundries? For now, it has been reported that Huawei asserts the answer is yes — the rest will depend on external technical confirmation and the evolving geopolitics of chip supply.