Huawei is reportedly preparing to move into DRAM manufacturing, a market that has become extremely profitable amid tight supply and surging memory demand. The company’s challenge is twofold: it would be entering a highly specialized business from scratch while also dealing with ongoing pressure from U.S. export restrictions.

A small group of manufacturers—Micron, SK hynix, and Samsung—currently controls the vast majority of the global DRAM market. Chinese players have historically been minor participants, but companies such as CXMT are trying to expand their share of the market. Huawei, however, is much larger and more strategically significant than those smaller domestic memory firms.

A State-Backed Push

Reports suggest Huawei is working with Swaysure and Chinese government-linked entities on a new DRAM production facility. The planned plant is said to target a capacity of about 140,000 wafers per month, which would make it a meaningful addition to China’s memory manufacturing footprint.

For comparison, Samsung reportedly produces around 500,000 wafers per month, while Micron makes about 250,000 wafers per month. Even with a sizable new fab, Huawei would still be entering the market at a much smaller scale than the industry leaders.

The Real Obstacles

Analysts say Huawei’s biggest problem may not be its lack of memory-making experience, but rather the difficulty of setting up advanced manufacturing under U.S. trade pressure. Semiconductor equipment vendors are heavily influenced by Washington, and that makes it harder for Chinese firms to secure the tools they need to build and operate cutting-edge fabs.

Jim Handy of Objective Analysis said tooling up will be the main challenge. He also noted that Huawei and Swaysure are reportedly starting with a 28nm process, which could support 8Gb DRAM chips with reasonable yields. But that node is not suitable for producing HBM, so Huawei would likely focus first on more mature DRAM products rather than advanced high-bandwidth memory.

Possible Timeline

Handy said it is unclear how far along the project is, but he would not expect the company to wait too long before trying to bring something to market. He suggested 2028 as a possible window for initial shipments. If memory shortages are still severe by then, Huawei and its partners could ramp production aggressively and maybe reach 2% to 5% of the market by 2030. If the shortage eases, the rollout could take much longer.

Why It Matters

Huawei’s entry would fit neatly into Beijing’s broader push for semiconductor self-reliance. If successful, the company could help reduce China’s dependence on foreign DRAM suppliers and strengthen its own supply chain for smartphones, servers, and networking gear.

It would also mark another step in Huawei’s evolution from a chip designer that relies on outside memory to a more vertically integrated player with greater control over the hardware stack.