• SMIC used Applied Materials and Lam equipment to make 7nm chip
  中芯国际使用应用材料公司和拉姆研究公司的设备制造了7纳米芯片
• US wants to further limit China’s access to foreign chip tech
  美国希望进一步限制中国对外国芯片技术的获取

作者：Cagan Koc 和 Mackenzie Hawkins 2024年3月8日，格林尼治标准时间+8 09:15

Huawei Technologies Co. and its partner Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. relied on US technology to produce an advanced chip in China last year, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
据了解情况的人士称，华为技术有限公司及其合作伙伴中芯国际集成电路制造有限公司依赖美国技术，去年在中国生产了一款先进的芯片。

Shanghai-based SMIC used gear from California-based Applied Materials Inc. and Lam Research Corp. to manufacture an advanced 7-nanometer chip for Huawei in 2023, the people said, asking not to be named as the details are not public.
上海的中芯国际使用来自加利福尼亚的应用材料公司和拉姆研究公司的设备，为华为在2023年制造了一款先进的7纳米芯片，这些人士称，请求匿名，因为这些细节并未公开。

The previously unreported information suggests that China still cannot entirely replace certain foreign components and equipment required for cutting-edge products like semiconductors. The country has made technological self-sufficiency a national priority and Huawei’s efforts to advance domestic chip design and manufacturing have received the backing of Beijing.
这一尚未报道的信息表明，中国仍然无法完全替代用于制造如半导体等尖端产品所需的某些外国组件和设备。中国已将技术自给自足作为国家优先事项，华为推进国内芯片设计和制造的努力已得到北京的支持。

Representatives of SMIC, Huawei and Lam did not respond to requests for comment. Applied Materials and the US Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security, which is responsible for implementing export controls, declined to comment.
中芯国际、华为和拉姆的代表没有回应置评请求。应用材料公司和美国商务部工业和安全局（负责实施出口管制）拒绝置评。

Lauded in China as a major leap in indigenous semiconductor fabrication, last year’s SMIC-made processor powered Huawei’s Mate 60 Pro and a wave of patriotic smartphone-buying in the Asian country. The chip is still generations behind the top components from global firms, but ahead of where the US hoped to stop China’s advance.
在中国被誉为本土半导体制造的重大飞跃，去年中芯国际制造的处理器为华为的Mate 60 Pro提供动力，并在亚洲国家引发了一波爱国主义的智能手机购买热潮。这款芯片仍然落后于全球公司的顶级组件，但超出了美国希望阻止中国进步的地方。

The machinery used to make it, however, still had foreign sources including technology from Dutch maker ASML Holding NV as well as the gear from Lam and Applied Materials. Bloomberg News reported in October that SMIC had used equipment from ASML for the chip breakthrough.
然而，用于制造它的机器仍然有外国来源，包括来自荷兰制造商ASML Holding NV的技术以及拉姆和应用材料的设备。彭博新闻在10月份报道称，中芯国际已经使用ASML的设备实现了芯片的突破。

Leading Chinese chip equipment suppliers including Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment Inc. and Naura Technology Group Co. have been trying to catch up with their American peers, but their offerings are still not as comprehensive or sophisticated. China’s top lithography system developer Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co. still lags a few generations behind what industry leader ASML is capable of.
包括先进微制造设备公司和诺瓦科技集团公司在内的中国领先的芯片设备供应商一直在努力赶上他们的美国同行，但他们的产品仍然不够全面或先进。中国顶尖的光刻系统开发商上海微电子设备集团公司仍然落后于行业领导者ASML的能力几代。

SMIC obtained the American machinery before the US banned such sales to China in October 2022, some of the people said. Both firms were among the American suppliers that began pulling their staff from China after those rules went into effect and prohibited US engineers from servicing some machines in the Asian country. ASML also told American employees to stop working with Chinese customers in response to the US curbs, but Dutch and Japanese engineers are still able to service many machines in China — much to the chagrin of their American rivals.
中芯国际在美国于2022年10月禁止向中国销售此类设备之前获得了美国机器，一些人士表示。在这些规定生效并禁止美国工程师在中国服务某些机器后，这两家公司都是开始从中国撤回员工的美国供应商之一。ASML还告诉美国员工停止与中国客户合作以响应美国的限制，但荷兰和日本工程师仍然能够在中国服务许多机器——这让他们的美国竞争对手感到非常恼火。

Companies are now prohibited from selling cutting-edge, US-origin technology to either SMIC or Shenzhen-based Huawei. Both tech firms have been blacklisted by the US for alleged links to the Chinese military, while Washington has been tightening China’s overall access to chipmaking equipment and advanced semiconductors.
现在，公司被禁止向中芯国际或总部位于深圳的华为销售源自美国的尖端技术。这两家科技公司因涉嫌与中国军方有联系而被美国列入黑名单，同时华盛顿一直在收紧中国对芯片制造设备和先进半导体的整体获取。

Those trade curbs pushed Huawei and SMIC to pursue avenues for building a domestic chip supply chain, and the Mate 60 Pro marked a surprising advance in that effort.
这些贸易限制促使华为和中芯国际寻求建立国内芯片供应链的途径，Mate 60 Pro 的推出在这一努力中标志着一个令人惊讶的进步。

Read More: China Secretly Transforms Huawei Into Most Powerful Chip War Weapon
阅读更多：中国秘密将华为转变为最强大的芯片战武器

After Huawei released the new phone, Washington launched a probe into its processor and US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo vowed the “strongest possible” actions to ensure national security. Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers have called for the Biden administration to completely cut off Huawei and SMIC’s access to US technology.
华为发布新手机后，华盛顿对其处理器发起了调查，美国商务部长吉娜·雷蒙多誓言采取“最强有力”的措施来确保国家安全。与此同时，共和党议员呼吁拜登政府彻底切断华为和中芯国际对美国技术的访问。

Department of Commerce officials have said they haven’t seen evidence that SMIC can make the 7nm chips “at scale,” a point echoed by ASML’s Chief Executive Officer Peter Wennink.
商务部官员表示，他们没有看到中芯国际能够“大规模”生产7纳米芯片的证据，这一点也得到了ASML首席执行官彼得·温尼克的回应。

If SMIC wants to advance its technology without ASML’s state-of-the-art extreme ultraviolet lithography systems, the Chinese chipmaker will not be able to produce chips at a commercially meaningful volume due to technical challenges, Wennink told Bloomberg News in late January.
如果中芯国际想要在没有ASML最先进的极紫外光刻系统的情况下推进其技术，由于技术挑战，这家中国芯片制造商将无法生产出商业上有意义的数量的芯片，Wennink在1月下旬告诉彭博新闻。

“The yield is going to kill you. You’re not going to get the number of chips that you need to have high volume chip production,” he said. ASML has not been able to sell its EUV systems to China as the Dutch government has not issued a license allowing those exports.
“产量会成为你的致命问题。你无法获得足够多的芯片来实现大规模芯片生产，”他说。由于荷兰政府未发放允许出口的许可证，ASML无法将其极紫外线（EUV）系统销售给中国。

The US, meanwhile, is pressing allies including the Netherlands, Germany, South Korea and Japan to further tighten restrictions on China’s access to semiconductor technology. That effort is proving controversial and meeting resistance in some countries, as it imposes limits on trade at a time that Chinese businesses are investing in equipment and computational power to compete in the artificial intelligence race.
与此同时，美国正在敦促包括荷兰、德国、韩国和日本在内的盟友进一步加强对中国获取半导体技术的限制。这一努力正引发争议，并在一些国家遭遇抵制，因为它在中国企业投资设备和计算能力以在人工智能竞赛中竞争之际，对贸易施加了限制。

Huawei may be China’s most promising candidate to develop AI chips to compete with the US. Industry leader Nvidia Corp.’s CEO, Jensen Huang, in December called the Shenzhen firm a “formidable” rival.
华为可能是中国最有希望开发能与美国竞争的人工智能芯片的候选者。行业领导者英伟达公司的首席执行官黄仁勋在12月称深圳公司是一个“强大的”对手。