Huawei prepares to produce homegrown HBM memory chips to accelerate AI and HPC development

Huawei has reportedly backed up the one China-based DRAM maker for the development of HBM (high bandwidth memory). More specifically, The Information reports that the Chinese company is backing up the manufacturing of HBM2 memory in China, which is far behind the current HBM3E Shinebolt. However, this marks a crucial move as it will enable the company to overcome the limitations in AI and HPC (high-performance computing) sectors that the US sanctions have put.

To fill you in, without high memory bandwidth, it doesn’t matter how much computing power a company might have. Low bandwidth leads to limited performance, which Huawei seems to have understood perfectly. Now, while the high bandwidth memory chips aren’t directly under the export restrictions put by the US, they are manufactured using American chip technology, which the Chinese company is barred from accessing.

The Information further reports that Huawei is building a consortium that’s backed by the Chinese government. The consortium has a good number of Chinese semiconductor companies, which includes the Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit, a China-based memory maker. There are advanced chip packaging specialists as well.

Reportedly, Huawei wants to begin mass production of HBM2 memory chips by 2026, which will make its Ascend series of processors more ready for AI applications. At the current stage, SMIC, a Chinese state-owned semiconductor foundry, may be able to manufacture these high bandwidth memory chips, but it’s clear that the limited availability is bottlenecking Huawei’s advancements in AI and HPC sectors.

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