Huawei Scientist Warns Western Chipmakers Face Physical Scaling Limits

Huawei Technologies' top semiconductor scientist Liao Heng warned in late July that Western chipmakers, including Nvidia, are approaching a physical limit in their ability to shrink integrated circuits and increase transistor density. Liao asserted that the industry's current scaling trajectory will eventually result in an "avalanche" once these physical boundaries are crossed.

To mitigate the impact of U.S. sanctions and overcome these constraints, Huawei is implementing the Tau Scaling Law. This strategy prioritizes improving transmission speeds between system components over the traditional method of shrinking chips. The company intends to showcase this approach in a forthcoming smartphone chip utilizing LogicFolding technology.

Liao also advocated for deeper collaboration between Chinese chipmakers and AI developers. He specifically praised Liang Wenfeng of DeepSeek for developing high-performance AI models that require significantly fewer computing resources than those produced by American counterparts, highlighting architectural innovation as a viable path to compensate for limited compute resources.