Tingbo He, known as Huawei’s 'chip queen', has announced a novel approach to chip optimization that could close the performance gap between Chinese and Western chips. Her company's method focuses on speeding up computations across entire systems rather than cramming more components onto silicon.

He revealed at an IEEE symposium in Shanghai that this new approach, dubbed Tau’s Scaling Law, will enable HiSilicon to produce chips by 2031 with performance equivalent to a 1.4-nanometer process – significantly narrowing the gap with leading-edge Western technology.

The chip industry is running into the limits of Moore's Law, which dictates that progress in computing depends on doubling the number of transistors every two years. Quantum effects interfere when transistors are just a few nanometers wide, prompting companies to find alternative strategies like stitching together multiple chips or using 3D stacking techniques.

While not everyone is convinced, He remains confident: 'These innovations will enter mass production, maybe not this year, but from 2027 and beyond.' Whether Huawei can truly challenge US sanctions through technical advancements remains to be seen, but the race for supremacy in AI chip design is heating up.