I’m headed to Huawei’s Mate 70 launch event in Shenzhen (yes, Shenzhen Metro has business class). This phone/chip/OS/event is a really big deal for Chinese tech, and has big implications for US-China relations. Here’s some background. 
In May 2019, the US Dept. of Commerce added Huawei and its affiliates to the Entity List, which restricted US companies (and allies) from exporting tech to Huawei. They expected this to cripple Huawei, because it wouldn't be able to acquire any semiconductors made with US tech.
The US govt assumed that by restricting Huawei’s access to cutting-edge semiconductor manufacturing equipment, particularly Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines from ASML, the company would be unable to produce cutting-edge chips at process nodes smaller than 10 nm. EUV lithography is crucial for efficiently manufacturing chips at 7 nm and below, utilizing light with a wavelength of 13.5 nm, which enables finer feature resolution with fewer patterning steps.
Without access to EUV technology, Huawei was expected to rely on older Deep Ultraviolet (DUV) lithography machines, which use light at a wavelength of 193 nm. DUV lithography can be extended to produce smaller process nodes through sophisticated techniques like immersion lithography and multiple patterning; however, these methods significantly increase manufacturing complexity, cost, and production time.
Then on the morning of August 30, 2023, Huawei quietly dropped a new flagship phone, the Mate 60 Pro. No product release event, no specs, nothing.
At first, no one even knew if the phone had 5G because of all the US sanctions that cut Huawei off from advanced tech. A friend that morning showed up in the lobby of my office with the new phone. "We call it 4.99G,” he said with a wink. We speed tested it against the 5G phones in our office and it beat all of them. Huawei wasn’t supposed to have a 5G chip.
At first, no one even knew if the phone had 5G because of all the US sanctions that cut Huawei off from advanced tech. A friend that morning showed up in the lobby of my office with the new phone. "We call it 4.99G,” he said with a wink. We speed tested it against the 5G phones in our office and it beat all of them. Huawei wasn’t supposed to have a 5G chip.
The timing of the drop was significant: US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo was in China that morning.
The tech world waited a few days for the first tear downs to see what was inside: a 7 nm Kirin 9000S, made domestically by SMIC. It caught everyone off guard, especially the US, because they thought Huawei couldn’t even get close to this without EUV tech.
The tech world waited a few days for the first tear downs to see what was inside: a 7 nm Kirin 9000S, made domestically by SMIC. It caught everyone off guard, especially the US, because they thought Huawei couldn’t even get close to this without EUV tech.
It turned out Huawei had secretly been pouring tons of R&D for years into designing domestic chips.
The chip’s performance showed that Huawei and SMIC had overcome the technical limitations previously thought insurmountable with older DUV tech.
The only remaining thread tying Huawei’s phone to Western technology was that it ran on Android. That changes today.
The chip’s performance showed that Huawei and SMIC had overcome the technical limitations previously thought insurmountable with older DUV tech.
The only remaining thread tying Huawei’s phone to Western technology was that it ran on Android. That changes today.
Welcome back, Mate. 轻舟已过万重山
@Huawei @committeeonccp Here it is, Richard Yu presents the Huawei Mate 70 Pro+
@Huawei @committeeonccp @HuaweiMobile Richard Yu is just openly calling out Lei Jun and Apple. The crowd is loving it.
By the way, we are in a stadium. They upgraded to a larger venue “last minute”. No international media here, Huawei executives and their families are all around me, suppliers and distributors on the floor, and I think KOLs in the back. My colleague @bridgemccarthy_ and I are the only foreigners here.
@Huawei @committeeonccp @HuaweiMobile @bridgemccarthy_ Lots of really innovative features, including by far the most advanced gesture controls, thanks to the powerful cameras and sensors under the screen. The screen is the most advanced on a phone, which is why they had to move the fingerprint sensor to the side.
@Huawei @committeeonccp @HuaweiMobile @bridgemccarthy_ Huawei is just running away with this, releasing things no other tech company could in a single event.
- $3,300 USD smart watch with real gold
- $2,000 foldable phones
- $700 tablet
- $400 health watch
- $3,300 USD smart watch with real gold
- $2,000 foldable phones
- $700 tablet
- $400 health watch
Entire section on Huawei Sound, Smart Home… how does one company make all of this, let alone unveil so many new products so often? They just had an event two months ago!
Smart home voice assistant. Like @googlenest, but you can talk to it, and it controls your entire home.
I really like this AI-Assisted Health Monitoring Device. Screw it into the ceiling or wall and it detects falls, bed presence, and sleep status. Great for monitoring children and the elderly. I’ve never seen this before.
I really like this AI-Assisted Health Monitoring Device. Screw it into the ceiling or wall and it detects falls, bed presence, and sleep status. Great for monitoring children and the elderly. I’ve never seen this before.
@googlenest Now time for the cars. I’ve never seen cars enter a stage so fast.
Direct shots fired at Tesla many times over. No one can directly call out so many companies across different industries like Huawei, except Xiaomi. But this is all one event!
@googlenest @leijun @Huawei This is what I mean when I say it’s increasingly difficult for foreign automakers to keep up with Chinese consumer preferences.
@googlenest @leijun @Huawei This was last year’s Luxeed S7 on Huawei ADS 2.0, and even that was 10x Tesla Full Self-Driving, which isn’t even available in China, where traffic conditions are way more challenging.
Now, ADS 3.0 is here. I’ll record some drives on it later.
Now, ADS 3.0 is here. I’ll record some drives on it later.
https://twitter.com/taylorogan/status/1797650374998065629
@googlenest @leijun @Huawei There’s a new sheriff in town
@googlenest @leijun @Huawei Maextro S800, RMB 1-1.5million. 5.5 meters long. Not many details today, but will have Level 3 intelligent driving and you can preorder today.
The screen just opened and behind it is an entire exhibition of what Huawei released today. Cool!
It feels like magic to grab and drop to another phone, and is possible because of advanced ToF cameras/sensors under the screen. I started grabbing screenshots from random people’s demo phones over their shoulders and dropping them onto people’s phones 10 feet away. I could see this being an issue on airplanes, like AirDrop haha
The cars look great, too. This is why everyone was excited (or scared) for Apple to make a car, except Huawei actually has done it (and now Xiaomi).
Huawei Maextro S800 looks incredible. It's longer than 99.999% of cars. $140k-$210k USD
Huawei stores in Shenzhen were filling up while the event was going on just to look at the new phones!
If this blows your mind, read through this thread where Huawei had another massive unveil event JUST TWO AND A HALF MONTHS AGO
https://twitter.com/taylorogan/status/1833445589888987477
To all the media reaching out to me: good that you saw this… you should cover it. I’m American, and an investor (Huawei is not publicly traded and my own government banned me from owning SMIC), so if I can see this, you have no excuse.
To those reading this and wondering why you don’t see this in your regular news cycle: ask yourself why
To those reading this and wondering why you don’t see this in your regular news cycle: ask yourself why
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