Chinese tech giant Huawei made a high-profile announcement on Monday about a new breakthrough in semiconductor technology, predicting that within five years it will be able to design high-end chips with transistor densities equivalent to a 1.4-nanometer process.
Interviewed analysts noted that this breakthrough currently remains at the theoretical and design level, and whether it can ultimately achieve commercial mass production still depends on whether China’s chip manufacturing equipment and processes can keep up.
The 2026 International Symposium on Circuits and Systems was held in Shanghai on Monday (May 25), where He Tingbo, Huawei director and president of the semiconductor business unit, delivered a keynote speech entitled “Exploration and Practice of New Paths in Semiconductors,” officially presenting the “Tao’s Law.” This marks the first time China has proposed a new principle to guide industry development in the global semiconductor field.
Tao’s Law breaks free from the framework of Moore’s Law, proposing the replacement of the latter’s “geometric scaling” with “temporal scaling,” enhancing chip performance by reducing signal propagation delay and overcoming the physical bottleneck faced in continually shrinking transistor sizes.
In her speech, He Tingbo mentioned that based on Tao’s Law, Huawei has already designed and mass produced 381 types of chips. She also revealed that by 2031, high-end chips based on Tao’s Law will reach transistor densities equivalent to a 1.4-nanometer process.
Mainland China’s most advanced chip manufacturing processes are generally considered to be at the 7-nanometer level, while the world’s largest chip manufacturer TSMC has advanced to 2-nanometer manufacturing technology and plans to begin 1.4-nanometer mass production in 2029.
Buoyed by Huawei’s new announcement, Chinese chip concept stocks soared on Monday. Among them, SMIC rose by nearly 20% at one point, with its stock price hitting a record high.
Veteran Taiwanese semiconductor industry consultant Chen Zi’ang told Lianhe Zaobao that from a physics perspective, many theories can be derived, but the key lies in commercially realizing them. Currently, the mainstream wafer equipment on the market still relies on planar processing, whereas Tao’s Law adopts a transistor stacking approach, and whether existing equipment can produce these remains an issue.
He drew an analogy: “Everyone is building single-story houses on a piece of land, but hasn’t anyone thought about building a high-rise? The issue is that the equipment and materials can’t keep up.”
Chen pointed out that even with such equipment, after chips are manufactured they still need to undergo comprehensive testing for Power, Performance, and Area—ultimately having to face the harsh realities of the market.
Sheng Meng, director of Xiangsong Capital, was also interviewed and believes that Huawei has proposed a new technical route, but it does not mean it is mature enough for commercial mass production. Further, comparing differences in technical routes to process node levels “is somewhat like comparing apples to pears.”
He pointed out that Huawei, to a certain extent, is playing the role of the “national team” in the chip design field and has indeed achieved certain breakthroughs. But at this point in time, the proposal of Tao’s Law is not entirely a market-driven strategy.
Sheng said that on one hand, Huawei needs to align with China’s national technological investment strategies; on the other hand, semiconductors have recently become a hot topic in the global market, also affecting China’s bargaining position in broader areas such as artificial intelligence in its strategic game with the United States. “Huawei happened to boost national confidence at the very peak of the hype.”
He added: “But the thing is, scientific laws can’t just be chanted into existence; they must withstand long-term and repeated verification.”
The 2026 International Symposium on Circuits and Systems was held in Shanghai on Monday (May 25), where He Tingbo, Huawei director and president of the semiconductor business unit, delivered a keynote speech entitled “Exploration and Practice of New Paths in Semiconductors,” officially presenting the “Tao’s Law.” This marks the first time China has proposed a new principle to guide industry development in the global semiconductor field.
Tao’s Law breaks free from the framework of Moore’s Law, proposing the replacement of the latter’s “geometric scaling” with “temporal scaling,” enhancing chip performance by reducing signal propagation delay and overcoming the physical bottleneck faced in continually shrinking transistor sizes.
In her speech, He Tingbo mentioned that based on Tao’s Law, Huawei has already designed and mass produced 381 types of chips. She also revealed that by 2031, high-end chips based on Tao’s Law will reach transistor densities equivalent to a 1.4-nanometer process.
Mainland China’s most advanced chip manufacturing processes are generally considered to be at the 7-nanometer level, while the world’s largest chip manufacturer TSMC has advanced to 2-nanometer manufacturing technology and plans to begin 1.4-nanometer mass production in 2029.
Buoyed by Huawei’s new announcement, Chinese chip concept stocks soared on Monday. Among them, SMIC rose by nearly 20% at one point, with its stock price hitting a record high.
Veteran Taiwanese semiconductor industry consultant Chen Zi’ang told Lianhe Zaobao that from a physics perspective, many theories can be derived, but the key lies in commercially realizing them. Currently, the mainstream wafer equipment on the market still relies on planar processing, whereas Tao’s Law adopts a transistor stacking approach, and whether existing equipment can produce these remains an issue.
He drew an analogy: “Everyone is building single-story houses on a piece of land, but hasn’t anyone thought about building a high-rise? The issue is that the equipment and materials can’t keep up.”
Chen pointed out that even with such equipment, after chips are manufactured they still need to undergo comprehensive testing for Power, Performance, and Area—ultimately having to face the harsh realities of the market.
Sheng Meng, director of Xiangsong Capital, was also interviewed and believes that Huawei has proposed a new technical route, but it does not mean it is mature enough for commercial mass production. Further, comparing differences in technical routes to process node levels “is somewhat like comparing apples to pears.”
He pointed out that Huawei, to a certain extent, is playing the role of the “national team” in the chip design field and has indeed achieved certain breakthroughs. But at this point in time, the proposal of Tao’s Law is not entirely a market-driven strategy.
Sheng said that on one hand, Huawei needs to align with China’s national technological investment strategies; on the other hand, semiconductors have recently become a hot topic in the global market, also affecting China’s bargaining position in broader areas such as artificial intelligence in its strategic game with the United States. “Huawei happened to boost national confidence at the very peak of the hype.”
He added: “But the thing is, scientific laws can’t just be chanted into existence; they must withstand long-term and repeated verification.”