Huawei is pushing itself further into China’s homegrown lithography machine supply chain, according to a report from the Financial Times. And it’s not just writing checks. The company is backing related equipment makers and component firms while also lining up suppliers, wafer fabs, and equipment manufacturers to get domestic DUV (deep ultraviolet) lithography machines onto real production lines. Bernstein analysts went so far as to call Huawei the “project manager” of China’s DUV program.
The furthest along, by the look of it, is Shanghai Yuliangsheng, which is building a domestic advanced DUV machine. That equipment is already under test at fabs including SMIC and at Huawei’s own production lines, with a goal of turning out 12 units by the end of this year. For now, the work is centered on simpler chips. But the end goal is much bigger: use in advanced AI chip manufacturing.
But China’s domestic DUV effort still leans on overseas supply chains. Yuliangsheng’s projection lenses are still sourced from Germany’s Zeiss, and high-power light sources are still a major bottleneck. Huawei has put money into companies including Zhiqi Photonics and Keyi Hongyuan to plug those holes in domestic lenses and light sources, respectively.