HLMC (Huali Microelectronics) is partly owned by Huahong. Their best process shrink is down to 22nm and they have pushed back their planned 14nm FINFET process first from late 2019 when news first came out about it, then to end of 2020 when they last talked about it in 2019.
Concerning Huawei, it's very evident that the US successfully slowed them down "DRAMATICALLY". Huawei was on the verge of becoming the defacto 5G world provider in 2020 and definitely would have been if the US didn't strongarm its vassals into playing the national security card. Huawei was also on the verge of overtaking Samsung mobile at the end of 2019 and they actually did outsell Samsung in Q2 of 2020. They were able to accomplish this even though Huawei sales are essentially banned in America. Without American interference, Huawei would most likely be the #1 smartphone vendor in the world in 2020 and easily so in 2021. Huawei also had the Kirin 9000 SoC, the first 5nm mobile chip, the Ascend 910 chip, the Kunpeng 920 chip along with recognition as having the best price/performance for all their networking equipment. Things were roaring at Huawei at the end of 2019 even in the shadow of the Meng Wenzhou arrest and looming sanctions. Huawei was basically an unstoppable juggernaut in sales, finances, technology, R&D, amazing roadmap, IP leadership, envious growth, you name it.
Having said all that, imo, Huawei is in big trouble now. It had the foresight to stockpile crucial semiconductors throughout 2019-2020 which is now allowing them to survive with a total ban on those semiconductors they are prevented from buying. However, once their stockpile runs out, it is do or die. Die meaning they will not be able to sell a large percentage of their networking gear, let alone 5G equipment and smartphones. Alot of that gear doesn't need advanced processes and they can get away with 28nm, 45nm, 65nm. The problem is, China does not currently produce a fully domestic supply chain for any process node, let alone 28nm.
28nm will allow Huawei to continue doing business as usual for almost all their networking gear and 5G tech. 5G base stations operate more efficiently at <=14nm but they can get away with 28nm. However, their SoCs, AI, IOT stuff is dead on arrival unless they can get process nodes to at least 14nm. For smartphones, they absolutely need <=7nm or else the Huawei brand, which is currently associated with high quality, will be killed. They cannot simply rely on a superior camera and that's why I think Huawei will release Harmony OS with any smartphone since Harmony OS performance is speculated to be an order of magnitude faster than the latest Android.
Given the amazing news of 7nm FINFET dual patterning trials at the end of this year, Huawei will definitely do well. We just don't know if their smartphone division will be a shadow of what it was or if Harmony OS can actually allow it to shake the world, at least the world outside the China market, which I am sure will eat it up because of the China app ecosystem.
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, I think next year will be the critical year for Huawei, it will be the year were their stock of chips will run out. So their Shanghai FAB will be crucial for their survival, the report I read indicated their plan production of 20nm chips is due in 2022 and I hope SMIC domesticate 14nm line is also available by that time. So its a race against time and lets hope their plan succeeded