Evidence is mounting that Huawei is building its own DRAM fabrication plants.
It comes from various media reports and analyst postings on X such as Citrini’s Jukan and TriOrient Investments’ Dan Nystedt .
There is a worldwide shortage of DRAM and its HBM variant due to a dramatic increase in demand by Nvidia for HBM for its GPU servers as it sells them to hyperscalers, Neoclouds and enterprises for AI foundation model training and also inference work. The CPUs in the GPU servers need DRAM, and other AI accelerator suppliers, such as AMD and Intel, are contributing to the demand hike as well. The dramatic jump in AI-driven demand has been caused by the widespread adoption of large language models (chabots) such as ChatGPT since 2022.
Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron supply all the HBM and more than 85 percent of the world’s DRAM. Smaller suppliers such as Nanya also have a role here, as does China’s ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), the 4th largest global DRAM supplier. However CXMT, like Huawei, is on the USA’s list of companies who cannot purchase advanced US-based technology, such as modern DRAM fabrication tooling. That means its DRAM technology is less advanced than that used by Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron.
The Chinese government has a multi-year strategy to make China self-reliant in in advanced technology and both CXMT and Huawei are trying to develop advanced DRAM fabrication technology and increase DRAM chip output. CXMT aims to sell its chips both inside and outside China, with Apple reportedly in talks to use its chips.
Huawei would be able to any DRAM chips it produced for its own processors, storage and network and SSD controllers, mobile and smart wearable devices. It also has a need for other kinds of semiconductor chips.
Jukan reckons that Huawei is building and operating DRAM fabs through a joint-venture with SwaySure and wants to make other kind of chips. He says Huawei has at least 11 semiconductor fabs in operation in various regions in China;
in Qingdao by Qingdao Si'En, which makes IoT chips in 5 fabs
in Dongguan by DGGMT,
in Fujian operated by Fujian Jinhua (JHICC).
in Shenzhen by
Pensun Technology (PST), previously known as Pengxinshu (PXX), which makes mobile chips in 2 fabs
Pengxinwei (PXW), with 2 fabs SwaySure (SWX) which makes DRAM in, possibly, 3 fabs
Fujian Hi-Tech (PJHT) These companies are owned by the Chinese government but “the actual operator behind these fabs is Huawei, according to several industry insiders.”
SWX makes DRAM and its Chief Strategy Officer was Yukio Sakamoto who was previously a TSMC fab director and a president at Japan's DRAM-making Elpida Memory, which went bankrupt and has since been bought by Micron. Sakamoto died in February 2024, aged 76 due to a heart attack. When it recruited Sakamoto, SWX said it planned to design and manufacture DRAM used in data centers, mobile phones and other applications with core R&D teams located in China and Japan.
Nystedt says Huawei and SwaySure are setting up “a massive DRAM complex in Shenzhen with 140,000 wafers-per-month (wpm) capacity (12-inch) to manufacture 28nm DRAM.”
A document table entry for SWX has been quite widely shared in X;
The main text reads: “Shenzhen Yì Wéi Xù Technology Co., Ltd. was registered and established in Shenzhen in March 2022. Its headquarters is located in Longhua, Shenzhen. It is currently constructing a 12-inch wafer Fab line with a process capability of 28nm. Its products mainly focus on DRAM memory, with a planned production capacity of 140,000 wafers per month.
Nystedt says Huawei’s main fab partner is Chinese semiconductor manufacturing equipment company SiCarrier.
Huawei has built up a formidable presence in the telecommunication, server, storage, mobile and smart wearable devices markets. If it became more vertically integrated, through making its own DRAM and other semiconductor devices, then it would be better insulated from restrictions on US technology use and from external semiconductor supply constraints and price rises.
We have asked Huawei if it is getting involved in DRAM fabrication and will update this story with any reply.
Bootnote
Qingdao Si'En is a state-owned enterprise under the Qingdao State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC). DGGMT is under the Dongguan SASAC. The equity of PST, PXW, and SWX is 100 percent owned by Shenzhen Major Industry Investment Group (SZMII), which is under Shenzhen’s SASAC. Bloomberg reported in 2023 that the Chinese government had established SZMII to support Huawei.