Huawei has revealed what it sees as a new path forward for advanced chips. At the 2026 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems in Shanghai, Huawei’s He Tingbo introduced the company’s Tau Scaling Law, a new semiconductor principle that Huawei says can guide chip development as traditional Moore’s Law runs into physical and economic limits.
The company says future high-end chips designed under this approach could reach transistor density equivalent to 14 angstroms, or 1.4nm, by 2031.
How Huawei is changing the chip game
1.4nm sounds pretty impressive, but the keyword here is equivalent. Huawei is not saying it has suddenly gained access to the most advanced chipmaking tools in the world, and the company has yet to provide any independent performance data. As of right now, China’s most advanced chipmaking capability is still widely viewed as being around 7nm (like the one powering Huawei’s tri-fold phone). However, the company’s plan is to chase performance through system-level efficiency rather than relying solely on smaller transistors.
Tau Scaling focuses on cutting the time it takes signals and data to move through chips and computing systems, with Huawei’s new LogicFolding architecture. The tech basically shortens critical-path wiring, reduces signal-propagation load, and improves both transistor density and circuit performance.
Which chips will test this first?
HiSilicon, Huawei’s chip subsidiary, is set to use this tech for its latest generation of Kirin chips. These are scheduled to debut in fall 2026 with the new LogicFolding tech. The company also claims it has designed and mass-produced 381 chips over the past six years based on Tau Scaling, covering areas such as smartphones and AI computing.
Aside from this, the company also plans to apply LogicFolding to the Ascend AI chips by 2030, along with large AI clusters used in data centers. While the 1.4nm is headline-grabbing, the Ascend chips carry a larger weight. With Chinese companies looking for alternatives to Nvidia hardware, which is restricted in the region, Huawei’s AI chips are becoming more important. Reuters also notes that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang recently said the company had “largely conceded” China’s AI chip market to Huawei.
As the US export controls have limited Chinese access to advanced lithography equipment and other critical semiconductor technologies, making conventional progress toward frontier nodes much harder. TSMC currently uses 2nm technology and plans 1.4nm mass production in 2028, while Huawei is trying to reach comparable density through a different design route. So the company is clearly not waiting for Moore’s Law or easing of US restrictions to decide how far its chips can go.
