Huawei's chip shortfall holds back 5ghz smartphone socs

Published on 15/04/2026 07:47 in technology • Dell Cameron

Huawei's Kirin chips are lagging behind the competition due to the US restrictions on the company.

A recent chart shared by Kurnal reveals the increasing peak clock speeds of smartphone processors from 2015 to 2025, with Qualcomm, Apple, and MediaTek nearing the 5GHz mark. The red-hot rumor suggests the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro, expected later this year, will boast a clock speed of 5GHz or higher.

However, one chip designer stands out for not following the trend: HiSilicon, owned by Huawei. According to the graph, HiSilicon's top processor only manages a clock speed of 2.75GHz.

Huawei

Huawei's euv lithography challenge

The reason for this disparity lies in the US sanctions and Dutch government support, which block Huawei from accessing cutting-edge EUV Lithography machines. These machines help etch circuitry designs onto silicon wafers, enabling higher chip density and lower process nodes.

As a result, Huawei's Kirin chips built by SMIC using a 7nm process node can't match the power and efficiency of TSMC or Samsung Foundry 2nm processors.

The latest Huawei smartphone chip, the Kirin 9030, has yet to reach a clock speed as high as 3GHz. China has reportedly been testing a prototype of its own EUV machine, but this is a recurring story with no concrete outcome.

SMIC, China's largest foundry, uses a technique called SAQP (Self-Aligned Quadruple Patterning) to produce Huawei's chips with a process node close to the 5nm class. However, this requires etching complex patterns multiple times due to the lack of an EUV machine.

In 2017, Huawei was ordered to pay $4.8 million to T-Mobile for stealing parts from the carrier's Tappy the Robot.

Despite the supply chain restrictions, Huawei continues to design and manufacture smartphones. However, the US sanctions severely limit the company's ability to compete in the global smartphone market.