ZTE today issued a clarification that recent media reports claiming its 7nm chip has realized mass production and 5nm chip has started technology importing was misinterpreted.
ZTE said some of the reports were factually incorrect and caused distress and disruption to the company's normal operations.
In the field of chip design, ZTE focuses on the design of communication chips and does not have chip manufacturing capabilities, the company said.
On Friday, ZTE President Xu Ziyang said that ZTE's 7nm chips have achieved mass production and 5nm chips will be launched in 2021.
Xu said that in terms of chips, ZTE has done front-end and back-end design. However, he did mention that in terms of production and manufacturing, it is relying on global partners.
But the so-called self-media on WeChat and Weibo didn't seem to have understood the difference between chip design, which ZTE was talking about, and production that will have to rely on cooperation with partners like TSMC.
Those reports generally interpreted that information in the way that ZTE has achieved similar chip production capabilities as TSMC, which is obviously false.
ZTE shares surged 22% on Thursday in Hong Kong as it first mentioned its 5nm chip design progress.
Here is the translated full text of ZTE's clarifying statement released on Saturday:
We are aware of several recent media reports that ZTE's 7nm chips are being mass-produced at scale and 5nm chips are being introduced. These are misinterpretations.
Some of the reports are factually incorrect and have caused distress and disruption to the company's normal operations.
In the field of chip design, ZTE focuses on the design of communication chips but does not have chip manufacturing capabilities.
The company has more than 20 years of experience in the design of dedicated communication chips and has a full range of capabilities from chip system architecture to back-end physical implementation.
In chip production and manufacturing, we rely on global partners to divide the production.
The design and manufacture of chips require the cooperation of the entire industry chain, and we have been working closely with all parties in the chain to build our competitiveness and to continuously create value for customers.
ZTE
June 20, 2020
