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A taxing conversation: Stafford County supervisors explore business-license levy
The board also talked about how to use future revenue expected from data centers.
Residents sue City of Norman, other entities over Rock Creek Entertainment District
NORMAN, Okla. (KFOR) — The City of Norman and other entities are named in a lawsuit concerning Norman’s Rock Creek Entertainment District. The group taking them to court, Oklahomans for Respo…
Owner of Grand Ole Opry confirms it may sell country music's most iconic venues
Ryman Hospitality Properties says it is evaluating potential opportunities involving Opry Entertainment Group following recent media reports.
Universal Music to build massive Texas hotel, performance venue
The massive destination is being billed as a “new era” of life and entertainment in Texas.
Micron forecasts quarterly revenue above estimates
Micron Technology forecast quarterly revenue above Wall Street estimates on Wednesday, signaling that insatiable demand for AI-related infrastructure will continue to drive strong demand for its memory chips.
Dorchester County man charged for operating business without retail license
A Dorchester County man was arrested Wednesday and charged with operating a business without a retail license, according to the South Carolina Department of Revenue.
Sony Pictures Entertainment Invests $100M In Cosm, Operator Of "Shared Reality" Venues
Sony Pictures Entertainment has made a $100 million strategic investment in Cosm, a venture-backed operator of "shared reality" venues.
Sony Pictures Invests in Cosm Dome Venues in Major Deal
Cosm venues feature a unique dome shape, delivering a fresh experience for live events and theatrical screenings.
Sony Pictures Invests in Cosm Dome Venues in Major Deal
Cosm venues feature a unique dome shape, delivering a fresh experience for live events and theatrical screenings.
Sony Pictures Entertainment Invests $100 Million, Takes Minority Stake in Cosm
Sony Pictures Entertainment Chairman and CEO Ravi Ahuja will also join the immersive entertainment company's board of directors
Business owner in South Carolina arrested, officials say
A business owner in South Carolina was arrested Wednesday for not having a retail license, according to the South Carolina Department of Revenue.
CC Biz Buzz: A busy business is not always a healthy one
Columbia College Business faculty member Gina Singleton writes about lessons of cash versus revenue.
A retro outdoor food park and entertainment venue is coming to Seminole Heights this fall
A slice of Old Florida could be coming to Seminole Heights this fall. Developers last week announced plans for Nebraska Roadside, an open-air food park and
Ari Emanuel's Mari is in Talks to Acquire ATG Entertainment
Ari Emanuel's events company Mari, founded in 2025, is in talks to acquire ATG Entertainment. Mari is looking to acquire the West End and Broadway venue owner and ticketing company for £4.5B ($6B).
Entertainment calendar
Please email entertainment listings to entertainment518@digitalfirstmedia.com. Wednesday, June 24, 2026 PROCTORS: 432 State Street, Schenectady. Chicago, 7:30 pm. www.atproctors.org. SARATOGA PERFORMING ARTS CENTER: 108 Avenue of The Pines,…
Cuyahoga County moves to increase funding for pro sports venues
Cuyahoga County moves to increase funding for pro sports venues
Road-funding initiative in Colorado qualifies for November ballot
A measure that would dedicate all transportation-related revenue to Colorado’s roads and bridges has officially qualified for the November ballot after it cleared the state’s signature threshold, according to election officials. Backed by the coalition Restore Our Roads, Initiative No. 175 would require that all transportation-related revenue be used exclusively for building and repairing roads […]
Road-funding initiative clears signature threshold, qualifies for November ballot
A measure that would dedicate all transportation-related revenue to Colorado’s roads and bridges has officially qualified for the November ballot after Initiative No. 175 cleared the state’s signature threshold, according to the Secretary of State’s Office. Backed by the coalition Restore Our Roads, Initiative 175 would require that all transportation-related revenue be used exclusively for […]
Drawing the Line Between Art and Science
“The lectureship will highlight both art and science, but I hope it also serves as a venue to hear from individuals with disabilities,” said Amanda Behr, PhD.
Student Turns LEGO Resale Hobby Into $50,000 Business
Cedarville University senior Micah Torres turned a LEGO minifigure hobby into Rusty’s Figs, a business generating $50,000 in revenue. Through mentorship, faith and...
Man arrested 9 years after business manager killed outside Charlotte shop
The deadly shooting happened on Fugate Avenue in August 2017.
Is Lowe's (LOW) Entertainment-Focused Loyalty Push a New Edge in Customer Engagement?
Lowe's Companies, Inc. recently announced a multi-year partnership with Live Nation Entertainment to offer MyLowe's Rewards and MyLowe's Pro Rewards members exclusive live music benefits, including concert perks and amphitheater tailgate experiences at select venues starting this summer. This expansion of the loyalty program into entertainment experiences highlights Lowe's effort to deepen customer engagement beyond the store and into members' leisure time. Next, we’ll explore how this...
Mill Avenue businesses brace for recovery as construction nears the end
After months of construction being just one factor keeping customers away from Mill Avenue businesses, places that have made it through hope a rebound is coming as construction nears its end.
From packed restaurants to slow taprooms, World Cup impact varies in Kansas City
The World Cup is bringing fans from around the globe to Kansas City, but not every business is benefiting equally. Some restaurants and entertainment venues are packed, while others say visitor traffic hasn't matched expectations.
Madison music venues take center stage at High Noon Saloon event
MADISON, Wis. — Madison’s rich live music history will take center stage Tuesday night at a special event at the High Noon Saloon.
UM Health - Sparrow officials break ground on new $60 million facility
The project expands UM Health-Sparrow Lansing's presence along Michigan Avenue while also furthering along the end of the St. Lawrence campus.
Two injured after vehicle crashes into Richland Township business
Two people were taken to the hospital after a vehicle crashed into a business along Scalp Avenue in Richland Township late Monday morning.According to emergency
Digital Health Institute welcomes French delegation to explore pathways to collaboration
The Houston Methodist-Rice Digital Health Institute recently welcomed Frank Marchetti, Consul General of France in Houston, and his team to discuss health care innovation and avenues for international collaboration.
Utica ballpark to host its first music festival
The professional baseball league operator is bringing another entertainment option and revenue stream to the ballpark.
Prediction markets push gambling to new level, causing concern
The state is waging a legal fight to preserve oversight and tax revenue amid competition from the increasingly popular platforms, which are regulated by the federal government.
Katy Growth Tracker: New Restaurants, Entertainment Expansion and 348-Unit Apartment Project
Several commercial and residential development projects are moving forward across the Katy area, including new restaurants, an entertainment venue expansion and a large apartment community planned in Jordan Ranch.
Global entertainment revenues to reach $4.2 trillion by 2030 as advertising powers industry growth
The global media industry is on course to generate US$4.2 trillion in annual revenues by 2030, according to the latest forecasts. The sector will add around US$600 billion in new revenue over the n…
The top 10 nonprofit health systems by 2025 operating revenue
The 2025 fiscal year saw across-the-board performance improvements for the country’s 10 largest nonprofit health systems, if not necessarily an expansion of their business. | Operating performances may have improved across the board, but not all of the country's largest nonprofit health systems grew their businesses.
Maui’s off to strong start, aims to be more than just entertainment venue
Maui's Indoor Theme Park is bringing a new destination for family entertainment to Owensboro, offering attractions for guests of all ages to play, celebrate, and spend time together.
Global entertainment and media advertising revenues to hit US$1.4 trillion in 2030 - as global box office continues recovery: PwC
The global entertainment and media (E&M) industry will hit US$4.2 trillion in revenues in 2030, growing at a CAGR of 3.4%, as AI-powered advertising and in-person, live experiences power growth in the industry, according to PwC's Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2026-30, released today.
PEDESTRIANIZE NOW! Financial District Businesses Want Space for People Not Cars
Financial District businesses want more space for pedestrians to boost their revenues.
Media Buying Briefing: How Sport Beach became a big Cannes Lions destination
Sport Beach has grown into one of Cannes Lions' most popular activations -- and a standalone business unit for holdco Stagwell.
Global entertainment and media advertising revenues to hit US$1.4 trillion in 2030 – as global box office continues recovery: PwC
The global entertainment and media (E&M) industry will hit US$4.2 trillion in revenues in 2030, growing at a CAGR of 3.4%, as AI-powered advertising and in-person, live experiences power growth in the industry, according to PwC’s Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2026-30, released today.
Iranians walk out of peace talks venue after Trump threat
Negotiations aimed at cementing the Middle East ceasefire were overshadowed by disputes over key issues and fears of renewed fighting in Lebanon
France restricts public drinking and outdoor sports as heat wave bakes parts of Europe
The Eiffel Tower and other Paris venues set up misting stations to cool crowds, among a raft of measures introduced by authorities to minimize risks. Tourists in Rome dunked in fountains. Spain’s Basque Country canceled some sports and cultural events.
Dartmouth Health reports $63.5 million deficit for first six months of fiscal year
Dartmouth Health faces a $62.5 million deficit due to weather-related closures and high costs, but sees increased patient volumes and revenues.
Tennessee Sports Betting Handle Holds Near $443M in May 2026 as Its Handle Tax Stays Flat
Tennessee took $443M in May 2026 sports bets at a 9.25% hold. As the only state taxing handle (1.85%) rather than revenue, its tax stays tied to volume. Full breakdown.
Connecticut Sports Betting Handle Hits a May High in 2026, but Revenue Falls to $15.6M
Connecticut took $187.3M in May 2026 sports bets, up 1.8% YoY, but revenue fell 13.6% to $15.6M as hold dropped to 8.31%. State tax was $2.14M at the 13.75% rate.
Dem who sued to remove Trump's name from Kennedy Center now says venue becoming 'lifeless husk' in fresh fight
The plaintiff in the case, Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty, said that by refusing to take steps to resume shows, the Kennedy Center is in violation of a previous court order.
A Visit to the Network School in Forest City
Last week I traveled to Singapore to give an invited talk at the AI4X conference, an exciting new venue gathering computer scientists, physicists and engineers to discuss how AI will accelerate
How To Start A Profitable B2B Business—And 11 Ideas Worth Exploring
From consulting to SaaS, these profitable B2B business ideas can help you build recurring revenue and long-term growth.
Kennedy Center asks judge to pause deadlines in ongoing lawsuit as it explores options for renovation
The Kennedy Center on Friday asked a federal judge for more time to comply with deadlines in an ongoing lawsuit over its looming closure as the center’s board explores avenues for renovation.
Hidden Ace deals a full house of drinks, food and entertainment
Hidden Ace is tucked-away venue for music, comedy and culinary delights.
Citizen Science Lab’s new home brings hope to Herron Avenue corridor
The Citizen Science Lab expanded into the newly renovated, previously long-abandoned Martin Luther King, Jr. Reading and Cultural Center in the Hill District.
Sphere Entertainment (SPHR) Stock Could Be 2% Undervalued After Immersive Content Momentum
Sphere Entertainment (SPHR) is back in focus after highlighting strong momentum in its immersive shows, including The Wizard of Oz at Sphere, and announcing a new Rocky Horror Picture Show experience, along with plans for additional global venues. See our latest analysis for Sphere Entertainment. That momentum is clearly reflected in Sphere Entertainment’s recent trading, with a 1-month share price return of 16.26% and a year to date share price return of 66.84%. The 1-year total shareholder...
San Diego begins installing parking meters in San Ysidro Business District
To develop the plan, city leaders worked with the San Ysidro business community. Revenue collected from the meters is reserved for transportation, parking and safety improvements in San Ysidro.
Report: PlayStation changed first-party single-player PC strategy due to lack of revenue
But CEO Hideaki Nishino has confirmed that live-service titles will continue to come to the platform
Mercedes release statement on withdrawing Monaco podium appeal
Mercedes confirmed that it has withdrawn its Right of Review request concerning the penalties George Russell received and served during the Monaco Grand Prix, explaining the reasons behind its decision to drop the appeal. The team disclosed that it had initially explored every available avenue to mitigate the impact of Russell's pit lane speeding penalty on his final result, particularly after Pierre Gasly's time penalty was overturned.
Tech Investor Prosus’ Revenue Rises on Growth Across Businesses, Tencent
Core headline earnings are expected to increase between 19% to 28% reflecting strong revenue growth and profitability across its businesses, most notably Tencent.
Tech Investor Prosus’ Revenue Rises on Growth Across Businesses, Tencent
Core headline earnings are expected to increase between 19% to 28% reflecting strong revenue growth and profitability across its businesses, most notably Tencent.
Texas Science & Natural History Museum opens new bat exhibit
During summer sunsets, Austin locals and tourists alike eagerly wait near the Congress Avenue bridge. Each evening, nearly 1.5 million bats emerge from underneath the bridge to begin their nightly flight to find food, covering the orange sky with black silhouettes. Open until August 2027, the Texas Science & Natural History Museum’s newest exhibit, “Masters...
Bend Police: Restaurant employee arrested for sexually abusing minors at downtown business
BEND, Ore - (KTVZ) -- A 35-year-old Bend resident, Davis Allen Kellar, was arrested on Thursday, June 18, on suspicion of sexually abusing minor co-workers at a local downtown Bend restaurant. The arrest took place at his home in the 400 block of NE Kearney Avenue in Bend. The arrest followed a month-long investigation by
Lehigh Valley entertainment and dining venue expands with mini golf, arcade and 2nd bar
A popular destination for fresh food, flavorful drinks and family-friendly fun is leveling up with a 12,000-square-foot addition set to open this weekend in Northampton County.
Public health professor completes third Fulbright Scholarship
When Dr. Helda Pinzon-Perez traveled to Uruguay and Paraguay this past semester, she brought more than her expertise in health education – she brought a commitment to expanding research, creating meaningful contributions and fostering collaboration between the two South American countries and the Central Valley. “I am just a venue to facilitate these wonderful opportunities […]
High 5 Entertainment’s hiring fair set for early 2027 jobs
High 5 entertainment venue in Estero is progressing with vertical building. Amenities include a pickleball club, bowling alley, bars, golf courses, and a full-service kitchen with memberships and public access.
Jason Stone Joins Tepper Sports & Entertainment as General Manager of Stadium & Venue Operations
Stone will join the organization on July 8, 2026, and oversee all stadium and venue operations for Carolina Panthers (NFL) games, Charlotte FC (MLS) matches and all other events at Bank of America Stadium, in addition to TSE’s broader portfolio of venues, including Atrium Health Performance Park and the Atrium Health Training Facility.
The Tricky Politics of Revenue
Our nation’s fiscal trajectory is unsustainable, in part due to the decline in revenue collection stemming from a series of tax cuts. Often enacted with bipartisan support, these tax cuts have severely damaged the linkage between economic growth and revenue flows to the U.S. Treasury. The result: Ev
SpaceX's diverse business model and future as an AI infrastructure company
Charles Payne and Dave Mazza discuss SpaceX's current revenue breakdown, with Starlink contributing 55%. Mazza highlights SpaceX's future as an AI infrastructure company, mentioning Grok and XAI, and its impact on its valuation.
Bleachers take the stage at CMAC this weekend
Bleachers perform at CMAC this Saturday. Here is what you need to know about tickets, parking, and the venue's bag policy.
Mary Means Business: Indoor pickleball venue opens July 1
It’s hard to find an available pickleball court in Starkville. Even harder to play pickleball in Starkville with this heat at 5,000% humidity. Well, that all changes next week.
An Anaheim vision: The Anaheim Angels in a new stadium, next to a youth sports complex
A new owner could move the Angels, but Anaheim offers a 150-acre site with what every owner in pro sports covets: land around the venue to turn the property into a year-round money-making operation.
California wealth tax sparks debate among billionaires, voters
A wealth tax proposal in California is running into left-leaning resistance, with critics arguing it's not a stable revenue source.
Is SEO Dead? Here's What I'm Telling Every Client Who Asks Me in 2026
The version of SEO your competitors are selling is dying. The version that actually drives revenue isn't.
Which 5 College Football Teams Have Best Home Field Advantage?
College football possesses by far the most raucous crowds in mainstream American sports. The largest stadiums in the United States are all college football stadiums. When drunk college students, alumni and other loud fans pack these venues, they create deafening forms of entertainment that cannot be duplicated. In the craziest college football environments, the stadium […] The post Which 5 College Football Teams Have Best Home Field Advantage? appeared first on The Lead.
Why Flutter Entertainment (FLUT) Shares Are Trading Lower Today
Shares of global online betting powerhouse Flutter Entertainment (NASDAQ:FLUT) fell 4.3% in the afternoon session after a report from Barclays showed the company's digital sports betting handle and revenue declined in May.
Reid Sigmon Named Senior Deputy Director of Athletics/ Chief Business and Revenue Officer
ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Naval Academy Director of Athletics Michael Kelly has named Reid Sigmon senior deputy director of athletics/chief business and revenue officer, a newly created leadership position designed to accelerate revenue growth, expand business operations and enhance the long-term strategic positioning of Navy Athletics.
Entertainment venue with rage rooms in north Charlotte opening soon
A rage room and splatter paint venue called iSmash will open in University City this summer.
Entertainment calendar
Please email entertainment listings to entertainment518@digitalfirstmedia.com. Thursday, June 18, 2026 SARATOGA PERFORMING ARTS CENTER: 108 Avenue of The Pines, Saratoga Springs. Jelly Roll, 7 pm. www.spac.org. Friday, June 19, 2026…
Entertainment calendar
Please email entertainment listings to entertainment518@digitalfirstmedia.com. Thursday, June 18, 2026 SARATOGA PERFORMING ARTS CENTER: 108 Avenue of The Pines, Saratoga Springs. Jelly Roll, 7 pm. www.spac.org. Friday, June 19,…
‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’ Coming to Las Vegas’ Sphere
Sphere Entertainment will "enhance" the 1975 cult classic for the massive venue.
Skill game ruling leaves Pennsylvania businesses facing possible taxes, new regulations
A Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling that classifies skill games as gambling devices is raising concerns among small businesses that rely on the machines for extra revenue.
Panel to discuss sports and business across North Texas
The Dallas Stars and Dallas Mavericks announced plans to leave American Airlines Center, their home for more than two decades, to build separate venues.
AI And Your HVAC Guy: HBS Founders Reveal Inside Business Strategies
AI startups succeed by solving real industry problems, prioritizing adoption, trust, workflows, and revenue.
Fowling Warehouse to close Hamtramck venue this month
Located on the Hamtramck-Detroit border, the 34,000-square-foot Fowling Warehouse opened in 2014.
SpaceX Bolsters AI Business With $60 Bil Deal. Musk Targets $1 Tril In Revenue.
SpaceX boosts AI business with $60 billion deal for Cursor. Elon Musk makes this bold revenue target. ARK details its SpaceX forecast.
Taking on tax: Toward progressive revenue-raising business tax reform
Hamilton Project director Aviva Aron-Dine discusses three new Hamilton Project proposals that offer ideas to raise revenue from business tax reform.
Taking on tax: Toward progressive revenue-raising business tax reform
Hamilton Project director Aviva Aron-Dine discusses three new Hamilton Project proposals that offer ideas to raise revenue from business tax reform.
This family-owned Fort Worth business plans to shut down after three decades
The family said it has lost too much revenue to nearby construction and is heartbroken to have to close in a couple of months.
Pitt Athletics And JMI Sports Launch H2PNIL To Elevate Student-Athlete NIL Support
PITTSBURGH – Pitt Athletics and JMI Sports, a leading multimedia rights and venue development company, announced today the launch of H2PNIL, a comprehensive ...
Dave & Buster's Entertainment Inc. (PLAY) Stock Falls on Q1 2026 Earnings
Dave & Buster's Entertainment Inc. (PLAY) reported first-quarter 2026 results with total revenue of $559.2 million, a 1.5% decline year-over-year, and gross profit of $479.4 million, down 1.3% versus the prior year.Total revenue: $559.2 million (-1.5% YoY)Gross profit: $479.4 million (-1.3% YoY)Operating profit: $46.9 million (-25.8% YoY)Net income attributable to common shareholders: $5.7 million (-73.7% YoY)Diluted earnings per share: $0.16 (-7
Thanks For Making Me 12th Highest on Substack’s List Of “Rising” Business- and Economics-Related Newsletters
A big thank you to those of you who upgraded to paid subscriptions to read my two most recent paid memos: https://richardkatz.substack.com/publish/posts/detail/201675746?referrer=%2Fpublish%2Fposts%2Fpublished and https://richardkatz.substack.com/publish/posts/detail/201774434?referrer=%2Fpublish%2Fposts%2Fpublished As a result, total paid subs rose by 5.6% over the past seven days. And that put me at 12th on Substack’s list of “rising” newsletters in business and economics. “Rising” means those with the biggest percentage increase in revenue from subs over a short period of time. Of course, as is often the case with the issues I discuss, this is a good-news/not-so-good-news story. The good news is a rush of new subs. The caveat is that it’s easier to get a big percentage increase when the base is relatively small. I have enough paid subs to be in the initial rank of Substack’s “best seller list,” but a way to go before enough of the 12,000 subs to Japan Economy Watch are paid subs. For most hybrid newsletters—a combination of free and paid posts—2-7% of the total subs are paid. 5% is my initial goal. If you gain insight from reading this blog, please join those who’ve already upgraded; help me reach 5%—and beyond. Subscribe
Black Watch to bring watch shop, speakeasy-style bar downtown
The newest addition to Phillips Avenue opens this week -- bringing a concept unlike any seen downtown before.
Firefighters called to equipment fire at Wilmington business
New Hanover County Fire Rescue crews are responding to a piece of equipment that caught fire at a business on N. Kerr Avenue Monday afternoon.
Laguna Beach Looking at Business and Hotel Tax Increases
City officials are looking at avenues for increased taxes in Laguna Beach, specifically geared toward day trippers’ pockets.
Fitzgerald tells ‘UpFront’ Packers will be fine as he explores issues with NFL, Sports Broadcasting Act
Fresh off his hearing on Capitol Hill, U.S. Rep. Scott Fitzgerald said the NFL may be violating the Sports Broadcasting Act and quickly dismissed concerns from the Green Bay Packers about any changes to the league's shared revenue model.
New restaurants, businesses coming to downtown Decatur
A few businesses have closed in Decatur, including Orangetheory Fitness and bb.q Chicken on West Ponce de Leon Avenue, but about 11 businesses are slated to open soon in the city.
New event venue, Elev8 Entertainment, opens in downtown Troy
Husband-wife duo Margaret Benitez-Green and Rasheem Green opened the space earlier this month, calling it "a place where people can bring their vision to life."
New event venue, Elev8 Entertainment, opens in downtown Troy
Husband-wife duo Margaret Benitez-Green and Rasheem Green opened the space earlier this month, calling it "a place where people can bring their vision to life."
Business roundup: Garden center closes, cookware shop opens and Ore House timeline uncertain
In this week’s business roundup: Botanical Concepts Garden Center in northeast Durango decided to call it quits this spring, a new cookware shop is set to open on Main Avenue, and a timeline for the r...
South Korea lacks venues to match K-pop’s global reach
South Korea's shortage of large concert venues is pushing K-pop demand abroad and costing cities potential tourism, lodging and retail revenue.
The cafe that stopped charging and made a profit
Minneapolis venue made more money even though nearly half of its customers paid nothing
Kennedy Center exterior remains covered after Trump’s name is removed
Large striped tarps remained on the Kennedy Center’s exterior Sunday, prompting confusion and frustration from some visitors to the renowned arts venue after President Donald Trump’s name was removed over the weekend.
Is SMIC N+3’s Metal Pitch Smaller than Intel 18A’s?
Almost four years ago, we published that SMIC had started shipping 7 nm (N+1) chips. Now, SMIC is shipping its third-generation 7 nm (N+3) process in Huawei’s Kirin 9030, with a minimum metal pitch of 32.5 nm, about 10% tighter than the 36 nm minimum metal pitch shipping in Intel’s latest Panther Lake CPUs on 18A. The headline is true, but incomplete cherry picked metric. N+3 reaches the density of TSMC N6 through aggressive DUV multi-patterning and design-technology co-optimization (DTCO), but it pays for that in complexity, efficiency and process control. We found this and more in our reverse engineering and teardown where we cover SMIC’s N3 process technology, Huawei’s packaging, memory, architecture, and more. SemiAnalysis has been building a state-of-the-art teardown lab in Oregon capable of analyzing the world’s most advanced and important chips over the last year and half. We have already generated revenue on advanced datacenter chip teardowns including our recent reverse engineering of a major TSMC customer’s COUPE CPO optical engine + EIC 3D stack. This is the first public report from the SemiAnalysis Teardown Engineering & Evaluation Lab, or STEEL for short. The lab is aggressively scaling up and out and we’re excited to announce it publicly. This is a bit of inconvenient timing for TechInsights as they are private equity owned and currently being sold while having enjoyed virtually no credible competition for decades. This has led to TechInsights underinvesting in CAPEX. SemiAnalysis exceeds TechInsights in revenue despite no venture or private equity ownership and being founded only 6 years ago. Because we have no external investors and are founder led, we move faster, build faster, and we can release client chip teardowns for free regularly, while focusing on datacenter for our major clients. Here’s the first public image from our lab, the HiSilicon Kirin 9030 Pro SoC: This report will detail our teardown of the Kirin 9030 and our findings on SMIC’s N+3 process, the most advanced in China. For comparison, we’ll show our teardown of the MediaTek Helio G99, made on TSMC N6. Through this comparison, we can look at the effect of export controls – SMIC N+3 and TSMC N6 are comparable nodes, but one is heavily export-controlled, the other free to use the West’s most advanced equipment. Here we see both China’s progress and constraints. SMIC N+3 reaches TSMC N6-class logic density, but it requires far more aggressive DUV multi-patterning, so it does not match N6 on process maturity or cost. The Kirin 9030 Pro performs similarly to three-year-old Android flagships, and trails far behind the current flagship SoCs from Apple, Qualcomm, MediaTek, and Samsung. The efficiency gap is even wider. Export controls have not stopped Huawei and SMIC from shipping advanced silicon, but they have forced a different path. Without EUV, SMIC is leaning harder on DUV multi-patterning, DTCO, and increasingly complex integration. The roadmap continues forward through tighter design rules and backside power, but each step adds cost and process risk. Huawei’s τ scaling and LogicFolding show another path: stacking active logic and recovering density through advanced packaging and system-technology co-optimization (STCO). To understand the Kirin 9030, we must first understand Huawei’s SoC history. HiSilicon is Huawei’s chip design arm, responsible for the Kirin smartphone SoCs, Kunpeng server CPUs, Ascend AI accelerators, and switch/router networking silicon. Before export controls, Huawei was TSMC’s largest customer – the only customer on TSMC’s first EUV node, N7+, and among the first on N5, alongside Apple. That ended in late 2020. Huawei switched to Qualcomm SoCs in its flagship smartphones, though export controls limited them to 4G-only variants. In late 2023, Huawei returned to in-house silicon with the Kirin 9000s, a successor to the Kirin 9000, fabricated on SMIC N+2 instead of TSMC N5. In the following years, they released the Kirin 9010 and 9020 on the same N+2 process. These chips used Huawei’s in-house TaiShan CPU cores and Maleoon GPU. We have not torn down a Kirin 9020 ourselves, so the predecessor die shot is from Kurnal. The die shots show how Huawei spent its silicon budget: which functional blocks are where, and how their areas compare to the predecessor. First, a quick guide to the major blocks on the die. The total die area is nearly identical, but the 9030 uses that area more aggressively. A denser process lets Huawei fit an extra middle CPU core, more GPU and NPU cores, and larger caches into the same footprint. In contrast, the Helio G99 is a much smaller, low-cost SoC, built for budget smartphones rather than a flagship device. While the Kirin 9030 is ~140 mm², the G99 is only ~29 mm², roughly one-fifth the area. The underlying TSMC process technology, however, is directly comparable as a baseline for analyzing SMIC’s. The Kirin 9030 is an evolutionary refresh, not a clean-sheet design. Its CPU, GPU and NPU cores carry over the 9020’s families, and the gains come from three levers: the SMIC N+2-to-N+3 process step, DTCO and floorplan work, and incremental microarchitecture. Area is where the first two show up, and the 9030 scales well here. Performance and efficiency are the harder test. Huawei’s design holds up better than its node would suggest, but the chip still trails, both because N+3 sits behind the leading-edge nodes and because its cores, while competent, remain a few generations behind the newest designs. The new prime core is an incremental update. The main changes are a 10% frequency increase from 2.5 GHz to 2.75 GHz and a doubling in the L2 cache from 1 MiB to 2 MiB. Despite the increased cache, the core size decreased by 7.6%. Excluding the private L2 cache, the core size decreased by 21%. This is a large reduction for an incremental node. Compared with the TaiShan New V120 core in the Kirin 9020, the Kirin 9030’s middle core is almost unchanged architecturally, yet each core shrinks by ~22%. Most of that comes from the move from N+2 to N+3, with layout likely accounting for the rest. Visually, the most noticeable change is the increase from 3 middle cores to 4. There is also a 20% increase in the shared L3 cache of the big cluster. This helps to improve multi-core performance without sacrificing much in terms of area. Even with each core shrinking, the big CPU cluster’s total area is essentially unchanged. The per-core savings went back into an additional middle core and larger caches. The tiny cores shrank less than the prime core (excluding its L2 cache) and less than the middle cores. This is likely because fixed overhead is a larger share on a small core. We cannot resolve any architectural changes from the die shot alone, but the per-clock and efficiency gains shown below point to more than pure process and layout scaling. The area reduction was offset by a doubling of the shared L2 cache from 2 MiB to 4 MiB, leaving the total tiny CPU cluster area slightly larger. Area is the easiest improvement to see from a die shot, but it is only one part of PPA (power, performance, area). For modern logic, power and performance matter just as much, and often more. Since Dennard scaling broke down in the mid-2000s, voltage and frequency have not scaled in step with transistor dimensions, so each node has had to fight harder for gains in performance and efficiency. The starkest comparison is not Kirin 9020 versus Kirin 9030 Pro. Apple’s efficiency cores run circles around Huawei’s prime core. Apple’s low-power core delivers 20% higher integer performance while drawing only 1 W, compared with 4.5 W for Huawei’s prime core. N+3 matches TSMC N6, but N6 is several generations old. Apple and Qualcomm build on N4 and N3P, which are denser and sit on a better voltage-frequency curve, giving them a larger transistor budget and more performance per watt. The 9030’s own cores did improve. The middle and tiny cores gained 17% and 14% in per-clock integer performance over the 9020, with floating-point flat on the middle core and up 11% on the tiny. The tiny core improves cleanly, with performance rising while power falls and efficiency increases by 45% in integer and 24% in floating point. The middle core is mixed: integer performance rises but power rises faster, cutting integer efficiency by 7%, while lower power lifts floating-point efficiency 16%. Per-clock gains at the same or lower frequency are microarchitectural, so the cores are tuned, not just shrunk. Both also failed to hold their rated maximum frequencies, pointing to thermal, power, or stability limits. Per clock, the middle core sits around Arm Cortex-A720 and the tiny core near the Cortex-A520; absolute performance trails because Huawei clocks them much lower. The prime core is roughly Cortex-X2 class per clock, a 2021 design. Apple’s 2020 M1 Firestorm core is still 35% higher per clock and 57% faster in absolute integer performance at a similar 4.5 W. The current leading edge is further ahead again: the Apple M5 P-core is 60% higher per clock and 2.7× faster, the Arm C1 Ultra 45% higher and 2× faster. Matching older high-end cores per clock is a genuine design achievement. What Huawei cannot match is the voltage-frequency curve and transistor budget of leading-edge nodes, which let Apple, Qualcomm and others spend more transistors in the same area on wider cores, larger caches and deeper buffers while running at lower voltage. Huawei’s LogicFolding roadmap is one answer, stacking active logic to recover density and shorten signal paths. We return to it later. The GPU compute units (CUs) changed more visibly than the CPU cores, moving to a more rectangular layout for both the arithmetic logic unit (ALU) clusters and the CU overall. Even with ray-tracing support added, a CU shrank ~28%. However, that shrink is offset by the increase from 4 to 6 CUs and the area outside the CUs grew 33%. Overall, the GPU cluster is larger by ~10%. The GPU is where Huawei makes its biggest gains. The Maleoon 935 is not competitive with current flagships, but it is a large step up from the 920 and reaches older-flagship territory. In 3DMark it is 70% faster in Wild Life Extreme (WLE) and 79% faster in Steel Nomad Light (SNL) than the 920; with 11% higher clocks and 50% more CUs, the ~67% theoretical uplift roughly matches WLE and is beaten by SNL. It edges ahead of the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 in WLE and SNL, and the Dimensity 9200 and Apple A16 in WLE, but stays far behind newer parts: the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and Dimensity 9500 are ~2.4–2.6× faster in WLE and ~3.2× faster in SNL. The Maleoon 935 is Huawei’s first GPU with hardware-accelerated ray tracing; there it lands slightly ahead of the Exynos 2200, and on par with the Apple A16, with current flagships up to 3.7× faster. The Neural Processing Unit (NPU) saw the largest structural changes of any block, moving from a Lite and a Tiny core in the Kirin 9020 to a Lite and two Tiny cores in the Kirin 9030. Both core types also show significant layout changes. This is a reversal in Huawei’s NPU design. The Kirin 9000 5G, its last flagship chip on TSMC N5, used two Lite and one Tiny core. The series of SoCs on SMIC N+2 moved to one Lite and one Tiny core, likely for area savings. With the Kirin 9030, Huawei has shifted back toward a larger multi-core NPU cluster, but with the additional area going to a Tiny core rather than a Lite core. We’re diving deep into the most advanced datacenter and AI hardware hitting the market. To learn more about what’s in the pipeline or to commission a custom teardown, contact sales@semianalysis.com. Interested in joining us on this ride and think you can be a difference maker? Check out our Careers page. Before diving into the process stack, the package and memory are worth separating from the SoC itself. The Pro variant of the Kirin 9030 carries 12 GB of Samsung DRAM, with two stacks of four dies each. The dies were identified as the K4L2E165YD, a 12 Gb LPDDR5X-9600 device fabricated on Samsung’s 1a node, the fourth generation of its 10 nm-class DRAM after 1x, 1y and 1z. 1a has shipped in volume since 2022, so this is current memory rather than older-node inventory. The 16 GB Pro Max variants we obtained were found with both CXMT and Samsung packages. The CXMT package is marked CXDD7JEDM, with two stacks of four dies, packaged in week 45 of 2025. The inferred die dimensions from X-ray computed tomography (CT) are consistent with a known density of ~0.3 Gib/mm² for the CXMT G4 process, roughly equivalent to other manufacturers’ 1z processes. The Kirin 9030 uses a typical integrated package-on-package (iPoP) stack: multiple DRAM dies in a memory package sit above an organic redistribution layer (RDL) interposer, which sits above the SoC and package substrate. The full package is then mounted to the printed circuit board (PCB) through ball-grid array (BGA) solder bumps. The memory package substrate is a thin bismaleimide-triazine (BT) laminate carrying the LPDDR5X stack. The organic RDL interposer over the SoC routes the PoP signals around the die and carries possible dummy thermal copper pillars. The package substrate, a thicker Ajinomoto Build-up Film (ABF) build-up over a BT core, fans the flip-chip bumps out to BGA pitch and embeds the power planes. The whole stack is organic. The only silicon is the SoC and the LPDDR5X dies; there is no silicon interposer. Keeping it all-organic brings the package’s coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) close to the PCB’s, reducing board-level warpage, and avoids the cost of a silicon interposer the SoC’s bandwidth does not need. In an iPoP stack, the memory package connects to the organic RDL interposer through an array of solder bumps. Underfill fills the gap around those bumps, adding stiffness and protecting the joints from mechanical stress. The Pro and Pro Max variants differ here, which we cover behind the paywall. The die shot and architecture tell us how Huawei allocated its silicon budget. The process tells us what SMIC can manufacture. We use the Helio G99 as the process reference for TSMC N6. Both SMIC N+3 and TSMC N6 are evolutions of previous 7 nm-class nodes. We used targeted TEM cross-sections through logic and memory regions, imaged in both fin-cut and gate-cut directions. Each cross-section caption gives its horizontal field width (HFW), the real width of the imaged area. We start at the transistor fins, then move up through standard cells, local interconnect, and SRAM. SMIC has not overtaken Intel or TSMC. It uses aggressive DUV scaling and DTCO to reach N6-class density, but that density doesn’t translate into comparable performance and efficiency, for two reasons: the node gap to leading-edge nodes, and Huawei’s core designs. Fin Profile One of the most important knobs in a FinFET process is the fin profile: the shape of an individual fin and the channel where current passes from source to drain. The ideal fin is tall, narrow, and nearly vertical. A taller fin increases effective channel width, while a narrower fin improves electrostatic control by thinning the body the gate must control. Push either too far, and the process pays for it: weaker drive current, fragile fins, taper, footing and line-edge variation that hit yield and device variability. The Intel 22 nm, 14 nm, and 10 nm fin cross-sections show how FinFET nodes have improved over time. 22 nm fins were a first-generation structure, relatively short, wide and strongly tapered. The shape limits current density and reduces gate control uniformity across the height of the fin. At 14 nm and 10 nm, Intel pushed the fins taller and narrower while also making the sidewalls more vertical. Rather than shrinking the device, these changes increase the effective channel width per fin and improve electrostatic control. The trade-off is that taller fins at tighter pitches are much more difficult to manufacture. Now, let’s compare the Helio G99 on TSMC N6 with the Kirin 9030 on SMIC N+3. Both processes are in the same class, with fin pitch of 30-32 nm on N+3 and 34 nm in our N6 cross-section. The pitch for N6 is especially interesting as N7’s HD library is generally listed with a 33 nm fin pitch, and N6 did not shrink pitches directly. Its density gains came from DTCO instead of tighter pitches. The 34 nm pitch was stable across our sampled region and serves more as a comparison against the SMIC N+3 we have not investigated further. Pinning down N+3’s fin patterning scheme takes more than one core unit. The CPU cores show a dense ~32 nm pitch, with the pitch between N-P fin pairs alternating between 78 and 88 nm. Logic alone may be consistent with dual-pitch mandrels of 120 and 110 nm, but this is a complex and unusual approach. Combining the pitch from the the 8T SRAM, which has more complex repeat unit, with the CPU core sequence allows us to reverse engineer the patterning steps with more confidence. As both the logic and SRAM should share the same base grid, a single CD mandrel lithography pattern with 128 nm pitch undergoing SAQP produces a die-wide ~32 nm grid (128 nm/4), which supports the pitch sequencing seen in both logic and SRAM cells. In the sampled cross-sections, N+3 shows a taller, narrower, higher-aspect-ratio fin than N6. The measured fin aspect ratio is ~9.5:1 on N+3 versus 7.8:1 on N6. N+3 also shows less top rounding, with an estimated radius of ~2 nm, compared with 2.8 nm on N6. Even though the fin widths differ, the ratio of top rounding to fin width tells the same story, with N+3 at 0.37 and N6 at 0.44. In a geometric sense, lower is better; a perfectly rectangular fin would have no top-rounding penalty. These are single-digit-nanometer features measured from a handful of cuts, so treat the absolute numbers as approximate. The important result is the relative gap: N+3’s fins are consistently taller, narrower and less rounded than N6’s. We’re diving deep into the most advanced datacenter and AI hardware hitting the market. To learn more about what’s in the pipeline or to commission a custom teardown, contact sales@semianalysis.com. Interested in joining us on this ride and think you can be a difference maker? Check out our Careers page. Standard Cell A standard cell is the basic building block of chip layout: a fixed-height row pairing one NMOS and one PMOS transistor that share a gate, tiled in a grid to build logic blocks. The key dimensions are contacted gate pitch (CGP), cell height (CH), fin count, and the lower-metal routing grid. To measure density, we use the Bohr metric: a weighted average of NAND2 gate area (60%) and scan flip-flop area (40%). This represents a realistic mix of combinational and sequential logic. This metric has its limitations, especially for complex cell layouts like TSMC’s FinFLEX, which alternates cells with different fin counts. Even so, it is the best metric for a pure process-level comparison. Another important measurement is the fin pitch; it refers to the distance between two fins of the same transistor. In a FinFET process, multiple fins are used in each transistor to increase the drive current and thus performance. TSMC N6 ships both a high-density (HD) library with 2 PMOS and 2 NMOS fins per cell, and a high-performance (HP) library with 3 of each. More fins under the shared gate mean more effective channel width. HP cells switch harder at the cost of area. Designers mix the two on a die, primarily spending HP cells on timing-critical paths, and matching their PPA targets. In the Cortex-A55 core of the Helio G99, we found a cell height of 240 nm for the HD cell. MediaTek has used HD cells in the G99 to minimize die size and thus cost. As an SoC for budget smartphones at ~$100, this is essential. By contrast, we found only one library in the Kirin 9030, with 2 NMOS and 2 PMOS fins. This suggests a narrower library strategy than TSMC N6, where both HD and HP libraries are widely used. This likely reflects the smaller customer base and the more constrained domestic design and electronic design automation (EDA) ecosystem. In all three CPU cores of the Kirin 9030, we found cell heights of 228 nm, 5% smaller than on N6. This is also a reduction of 9.5% over SMIC N+2’s cell height of 252 nm. SMIC N+3 and TSMC N6’s HD library both feature a CGP of 57 nm. For SMIC, this is a 9.5% shrink over N+2. In the past, CGP and cell height alone may have been enough to compare transistor density. Now, however, we must consider scaling boosters and DTCO as well. SMIC’s density gain does not come from EUV. It comes from using every available DTCO booster aggressively. First is fin depopulation: reducing the number of NMOS and PMOS fins in each cell. The first FinFET nodes started with 3 or 4 fins for each transistor. SMIC N+3 and TSMC N6 HD both use only 2 fins per transistor, trading drive strength for density. Next is contact over active gate (COAG). By landing the gate contact directly over the active gate, instead of out over the isolation region, the cell height drops. N+3 integrates COAG while N6 does not. Our N+3 gate-cut cross-sections indicate COAG, with the gate contact sitting over the active region, while N6 shows an off-gate contact. Last is single diffusion break (SDB). Diffusion breaks are inserted between cells in the same row to provide electrical isolation, but they also introduce local layout effects (LLE), layout-dependent shifts in electrical characteristics. In the past, a double diffusion break was used, consuming the space of two CGPs. SMIC N+3 and TSMC N6 instead use SDB, saving area but increasing LLE sensitivity. This must be controlled at the process level and accurately modeled in the process design kit (PDK) so that EDA tools can account for it. Overall, SMIC N+3 has a transistor density of 113.4 MTr/mm², slightly above TSMC N6 at 107.7 MTr/mm². Even without EUV, SMIC has achieved density beyond TSMC’s mature N6 node which utilizes EUV. Metal Stack The smallest critical dimension in the teardown is M0; SMIC N+3 uses a 32.5 nm local metal pitch. That is smaller than the 36 nm M0 pitch on Intel 18A in Panther Lake. However, this does not mean that SMIC has a better process than Intel 18A or TSMC N3P. M0 is a local intra-cell routing layer. Its usefulness depends on the full interconnect stack: M1 and M2 pitch, track count, via and line resistance, design rules, mask count, overlay control, and routing flexibility. The 32.5 nm M0 is consistent with self-aligned quadruple patterning (SAQP), whose four-population line-width loading we read coarsely as alternating widths of 21.5 to 24 nm; M1 and M2, at 38 and 40 nm, are consistent with self-aligned double patterning (SADP), a single A/B split. On TSMC N6, M0, M2, and M3 sit at a relaxed ~40 nm and are consistent with SADP-class double patterning, with no need for quadruple patterning. That said, we measure M2 for example at ~43 nm, likely inflated by sparse routing. We do not assign any specific layer to EUV from our cross-sections; the distinction we can draw is double versus quadruple patterning, not lithography wavelength. Transistor-level density in the front-end-of-line (FEOL) sets an upper bound, but the design is ultimately limited by what the interconnect stack can route. The lowest metals are the most important for standard-cell density, but the semi-global and global layers determine how usable that density is at the block and chip level. Two axes are commonly used for chip cross-sections: the fin-cut and the gate-cut. The micrograph above is a fin-cut and shows metals 0 through 3. This axis lets us see the even-numbered metals, with M0 right above the fins. There are two kinds of M0 lines. The first are the power rails; these are wide wires for the VDD and VSS running horizontally at the top and bottom edges of each standard cell. The wide wires measure 55 nm across, more than double the other M0 lines. Their width minimizes resistance and reduces IR drop. The second kind are intra-cell wires, short segments within the cell that connect terminals to M1. These have alternating widths between 21.5 and 24 nm. The M0 pitch is 32.5 nm, a 19% reduction versus N+2 and N6. At this pitch, DUV patterning requires more aggressive multi-patterning, increasing mask count, overlay sensitivity, process complexity and cost. M0 is below what a single DUV-defined spacer (SADP) can resolve, so SMIC cascades a second spacer step (SAQP). The cross-section reflects the cost: the M0 trenches are visibly more re-entrant (narrower at the bottom than the top) than M1 or M2 on the same chip and carry a bright barrier-rich foot where the trench meets the etch-stop layer. That shape is partly the intended damascene profile, as a slightly narrow bottom helps void-free copper fill, but its magnitude at M0 is driven by the tight pitch and the higher trench aspect ratio. Intel 18A supports an M0 pitch of 32 nm, although Panther Lake has only shipped with a looser 36 nm pitch. This is due to Intel’s heavy usage of HP libraries. Among leading-edge nodes, 18A has the loosest M0 pitches due to PowerVia. With power routing moving to the backside, congestion is reduced, and the entire front-side metal stack can be used for signal routing. M2 is the first true inter-cell routing layer. It runs horizontally like M0 but spans across multiple cells to carry block-level signals. The M2 pitch sets the cell’s track height – the number of M2 tracks that fit between the VDD and VSS rails, defining what the library calls a 6-track or 7.5-track cell. This layer is the most important, limiting the routing of entire blocks. SMIC N+3 features a 5.7-track cell. The M2 pitch is 40 nm, a 5% decrease over N+2 and the same as N6. This shrink keeps the pitch at the edge of what is possible with double patterning. Future nodes will need to increase the number of masks for M2 as reducing the number of tracks is much harder due to the limitations in routing. The micrograph above is in the perpendicular direction, the gate-cut, and shows metals 0 through 4. This allows us to see and measure the odd-numbered vertical metal layers. The M1 pitch is 38 nm, 9.5% less than N+2 and 33% less than N6. The M1-to-gate ratio matters because it sets local routing flexibility. N+2 and N+3 use a 3:2 ratio, while N6 uses a 1:1 ratio, explaining the huge differences in M1 pitch. The more M1 lines there are compared with the gates, the more flexibility there is for power and signal crossing within the cell. Routing flexibility enables more complex and better cells. Clean fractional ratios are also preferred as a grid is periodic and improves layouts. The 3:2 ratio gives SMIC more local routing flexibility than a strict 1:1 grid, but it also complicates layout and patterning. This is a DTCO choice, with SMIC increasing process complexity to recover density and routability without EUV. This 3:2 ratio is not very popular in the leading-edge nodes. TSMC has only used it on N7+, the N5 family, and the short-lived N3(B). They have switched back to a 1:1 ratio for N3E. Intel has only used it on the 10 nm/Intel 7 family, with Intel 4, 3 and 18A all using a 1:1 ratio. Samsung is the only one still using a 3:2 ratio at the leading edge, using it in the SF4 and SF3 families. It remains to be seen if SMIC will remain at a 3:2 ratio or move to a 1:1 ratio with its future nodes. The industry is still actively exploring these local-routing ratios. At VLSI 2026, imec will be presenting work on even higher ratios, including a 2:1 scheme that can reduce area by up to 14%. We will be covering the conference in a future newsletter article. Subscribe We’re diving deep into the most advanced datacenter and AI hardware hitting the market. To learn more about what’s in the pipeline or to commission a custom teardown, contact sales@semianalysis.com. Interested in joining us on this ride and think you can be a difference maker? Check out our Careers page. The final local interconnect layer for N+3 is M3, with a pitch of 44 nm. The M3 pitch is the same as on N+2 and 10% larger than on N6. The semi-global layers carry the majority of block-level signal routing. They have a coarser pitch than the lower local layers. On leading-edge nodes, they are designed to sit at the limit of DUV single patterning. M4 through M11 pitches were found divided between 80–82 nm (M4–M6), 128 nm (M7–M10), and 148 nm (M11). Given limited sampling, it is possible these are divided further in dense routing areas. At the top are two giant metal layers, M12 and M13. These have kept the same pitches as N+2 at 1920 nm and 4600 nm respectively. While the lower layers’ pitches are generally fixed by the process and library, the upper layers vary much more in pitch and count, depending on the design. Even two smartphone SoCs on the same process can have wildly different metal stacks. The Helio G99 carries fewer routing layers, reaching coarse metal pitches of 850 nm by M9, while the larger and higher-performance Kirin 9030 keeps fine pitches until M11. SRAM At the leading edge, SRAM is much more difficult to scale than logic. TSMC’s latest nodes have seen little to no bitcell scaling, while logic still has more DTCO levers to pull. While looking for other logic libraries in the GPU compute units, we stumbled upon the SRAM. The most common type of SRAM has 6 transistors (6T), but this cell had 8 transistors (8T) instead. 8T SRAM adds two transistors to form a dedicated read port. Unlike a 6T cell, where reading disturbs the storage, the decoupled read port removes read-disturb, improving read stability and letting the cell be pushed harder for performance. At first glance, the cut looked like an unusual logic library, with each cell row having 3 fins of one polarity and 5 fins of another. The rows also alternated in orientation. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) resolved our confusion. The cut had not landed on the GPU logic, but on the SRAM macro beside it. The unusual fin pattern was due to the SRAM library. We return to EDS in the process flow analysis behind the paywall. SRAM libraries are not like traditional logic libraries. Due to the unequal number of PMOS and NMOS transistors, they require specialized rules and layout libraries. They do not need the flexibility of logic libraries, so they are hyper-optimized for one purpose: dense, reliable memory. The SRAM cell we found is a 1:2:2-2:2 cell. This means there is 1 fin per pull-up (PU) PMOS transistor, and 2 fins per pull-down (PD) and pass-gate (PG) NMOS transistor. These 2 PU, 2 PD and 2 PG transistors would usually form a single 6T high-current cell (HCC). An 8T HCC adds a read-pull-down (RPD) and a read-pass-gate (RPG) NMOS transistor, each with two fins. We measured a cell height of 406 nm, which brings the bitcell size to 0.0463 µm². That is a theoretical peak density of 21.6 Mib/mm². We estimate that a 6T HCC would have a cell height of 292 nm and a size of 0.0337 µm². This is ~12% larger than a 6T HCC on Intel 3 and 4. We also estimate the 6T high-density cell (HDC) to have a cell height of 228 nm and a size of 0.0260 µm². This is coincidentally the same as the logic standard-cell height measured earlier. The estimate puts the cell near Samsung 7LPP/5LPP and slightly below TSMC N7/N6. That is a theoretical peak density of 38.5 Mib/mm². 6T HDC is arguably the most important cell as it is used for the largest caches in a chip, the L3 caches and system-level cache (SLC). Both the Kirin 9020 and 9030 have split the SLC into 4 banks to raise total SLC bandwidth. In the Kirin 9030, the SLC increased from 2 MiB to 3 MiB per bank. Correspondingly, the number of arrays within the bank also increased by 50%, from 16 to 24. Each array can store 128 KiB and forms an orderly pattern on the die shot. From the Kirin 9020 to the Kirin 9030, the area of a 128 KiB SLC array decreased from 0.0477 mm² to 0.0392 mm², an 18% shrink. The achieved density is 25.5 Mib/mm², 66% of the theoretical maximum. While the SLC was quite similar across both chips, the L3 has seen some major changes, particularly in terms of its layout. The total capacity also went up from 10 MiB to 12 MiB. Much like the SLC, the L3 is also split into 4 banks. In the Kirin 9020, an L3 bank consisted of 16× 128 KiB arrays and 16× 32 KiB arrays. However, an L3 bank in the Kirin 9030 instead consists of 48× 64 KiB arrays. In the Kirin 9020 L3, a 128 KiB array was 0.0513 mm² and a 32 KiB array was 0.0154 mm². The size of the 128 KiB array is different on the L3 and SLC as the assist circuitry for the two arrays differs depending on their purpose. In the Kirin 9030 L3, a 64 KiB array is 0.0210 mm². Although not a like-for-like comparison, normalized for capacity, it is 18% smaller than the 9020’s 128 KiB L3 array and 31% smaller than its 32 KiB L3 array. The achieved density is slightly lower than the SLC, at 23.8 Mib/mm², 62% of the theoretical maximum. Unlike the L3 and SLC, the prime cores’ private L2 cache uses a 2-bank design. As the prime cores’ L2 is latency-critical, it likely uses 6T HCC instead of 6T HDC. The 9020 has 16 arrays in each bank while the 9030 has 32. Each array has a capacity of 32 KiB. A 32 KiB array in the L2 shrank from 0.0171 mm² to 0.0142 mm², ~17% smaller. The density is 17.6 Mib/mm², ~59% of the theoretical maximum for 6T HCC. SRAM scaled well from N+2 to N+3, shrinking by ~19%, close to the theoretical logic shrink. The caveat is that N+2’s bitcells were unusually large, bigger than comparable 7 nm-class nodes, so part of the gain is catch-up rather than true scaling. With the insights from STEEL’s teardowns, we will be doing a deep dive into SRAM in a future newsletter article. Subscribe Everything above came out of a single STEEL teardown: die annotation, block-level area analysis and TEM cross-sections through logic and SRAM. We’re diving deep into the most advanced datacenter and AI hardware hitting the market. To learn more about what’s in the pipeline or to commission a custom teardown, contact sales@semianalysis.com. Future Roadmap The same cross-sections that pin down N+3 also show where SMIC can go next. Although N+3 is already close to the practical limits of DUV multi-patterning in several layers, SMIC still has a few scaling levers left. A theoretical N+4 would likely start with cell height. N+3 uses 5 M0 tracks between its power rails. Moving to 4 M0 tracks, as on SMIC N+2 and TSMC N6, could reduce cell height by roughly 15%. The routing grid is only one side of the shrink; the front end also must fit into the smaller cell. One possible FEOL lever is reducing the p-to-n isolation spacing from two diffusion grid units to one. Intel used this scaling booster on Intel 4, and TSMC did so on its N3 family. This path trades layout flexibility for density. Fewer M0 tracks reduce local routing resources, while tighter p-to-n spacing raises integration and design-rule difficulty. M2 is also constrained by the cell height shrink. For SMIC to maintain a ~5.7-track cell, M2 would need to move toward ~35 nm. That would move another layer into SAQP territory. SMIC could also reduce the CGP from 57 nm to 54 nm. Intel reached a similar CGP on Intel 10 nm/Intel 7 without EUV. The local interconnect is also tougher. If SMIC keeps the 3:2 M1-to-gate ratio, M1 would need to shrink to 36 nm and would likely require SAQP as well. If SMIC moves to a 1:1 ratio, M1 could relax to 54 nm, but it would give up routing flexibility. Under this theoretical path, we estimate that SMIC N+4 could reach a cell height of 198 nm and a CGP of 54 nm, implying a Bohr density of 137.8 MTr/mm², on par with TSMC N5 or Samsung SF4. However, the difficulty is cumulative. Each step is individually plausible, but together they make N+4 harder than the transition from N+2 to N+3. It will likely take longer, cost more, and carry less process margin. A theoretical N+5 would require a larger integration shift. One possible path is backside contacts (BSCon), moving power routing and source/drain contacts to the backside, which would reduce front-side routing pressure and enable another reduction in cell height. The front-side metal pitches could relax to reduce the process complexity. M0 would likely relax slightly to ~34 nm, and M2 and M4 pitches could relax further. CGP is unlikely to shrink much further. Even with EUV, 48 nm has been the practical limit for yield and process control. This approach would allow N+5’s cell height to fall to 170 nm and its CGP to 53 nm. This implies a Bohr density of 163.6 MTr/mm², on par with Intel 18A’s HP library. However, this would not make N+5 cost-competitive with the leading edge. It would reach a similar density through a much more expensive route. The integration difficulty rises sharply, with new process flows for backside alignment, wafer thinning, contact reveal, and backside metallization. Past this point, standard density and interconnect scaling become increasingly unattractive. That is where Huawei’s roadmap stops looking like a normal foundry roadmap and starts looking like a packaging roadmap. At ISCAS 2026, Huawei unveiled its tau (τ) scaling law, reframing process scaling in the time domain. τ is the time cost of data movement and processing: switching delays in transistors, RC signal propagation delays in circuits, compute, memory, and networking latency. Outside Huawei’s terminology, this is called system-technology co-optimization. This is Huawei’s answer to its lack of EUV lithography. Without EUV, planar density cannot keep pace with TSMC, Intel, or Samsung. If transistor density cannot shrink further, Huawei’s alternative is to shorten wires, reduce buffering, and stack logic vertically. “LogicFolding”, Huawei’s implementation of this new scaling idea, is, in practice, an aggressive 3D stacking approach. AMD V-Cache places SRAM above or below a CPU die. AMD’s MI350X places active interposer dies (AIDs) underneath accelerator and compute dies (XCDs), with the AIDs handling cache, IO interfaces, the network-on-chip (NoC) and embedded metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitors. With LogicFolding, parts of the same logic block are split across multiple active dies bonded face-to-face at ultra-fine pitch. This allows Huawei to shorten some critical paths and reduce buffer overhead, not merely add cache capacity or offload the IO and interconnect. Shortening wires is where the higher clocks come from. A large share of a modern core’s delay and energy budget goes into driving long interconnects and the repeater buffers along them. LogicFolding distributes a block’s critical-path gates across multiple stacked tiers bonded at a very fine pitch, so the bond interface behaves like an additional metal layer and the longest paths get shorter. That is how Huawei expects to recover frequency and efficiency it cannot get from the process alone. Huawei’s roadmap shows its intent. Prime core frequency is targeted to rise from 2.75 GHz in the Kirin 9030 to roughly 5 GHz by 2031, far beyond what planar scaling alone could deliver. Prime cores with 3.1 and 3.39 GHz clocks are being tested in its labs, although their power consumption is unknown. Beyond that, chips are in the design, simulation or pathfinding phase, meaning the frequencies are targets. However, the direction matters more: LogicFolding also helps with performance, not just density. The catch is that Huawei’s density claim is not directly comparable to foundry densities. A stacked design can report more transistors per package footprint by adding active layers, even if each patterned die remains well behind TSMC or Intel in front-end density. This is how Huawei can claim to reach foundry 14A-equivalent density by 2031. This is not a like-for-like foundry comparison, with Huawei using stacked logic and measuring density per package footprint. On a normalized Bohr-density basis, SMIC N+3 is ~114 MTr/mm², 38% less than Intel 18A’s HD library. Huawei’s 3D roadmap closes the gap by stacking active logic, reaching 215 MTr/mm² by 2030. In 2031, the roadmap density jumps to 295 MTr/mm², implying either a third active layer, partial EUV insertion or aggressive planar DUV scaling. Huawei’s methodology makes other foundries look much denser as well. Applying it to AMD’s MI450X with an N2 top die on an N3P base die yields a theoretical density of 460.2 MTr/mm² in 2026, compared with Huawei’s 295 MTr/mm² in 2031. This Kirin 9030 does not use LogicFolding, remaining in a conventional mobile SoC package. Instead, it forms the baseline for how far Huawei and SMIC can push planar scaling. Future teardowns of Kirin and Ascend chips will show both planar logic density and Huawei’s hybrid bonding solutions. Export controls changed China’s optimization problem rather than ending it. EUV restrictions raised the cost and complexity of leading-edge manufacturing without freezing it. SMIC reaches N6-class logic density through DUV immersion, SAQP and DTCO, while Huawei shifts more of the burden onto architecture, packaging and system-level integration. Future nodes will be tougher. N+3 still had room to tighten local metals and reduce cell height and CGP. Further scaling without EUV leaves fewer levers. More aggressive multi-patterning adds masks and overlay error. SMIC can keep pushing DUV, but each step will get more expensive and less forgiving. The design side is just as critical. Huawei had domestic EDA tools and flows before the Kirin 9030, with the Kirin 9000s, 9010 and 9020 making that clear. Huawei was able to ship multiple consumer SoCs on SMIC N+2 and N+3 while cut off from the Western EDA stack. US export controls restricted EDA tools for advanced chips in 2022 but did not target tools for more mature chips. In 2025, the US government briefly placed much broader restrictions on EDA software from Synopsys, Cadence, and others, before lifting them less than two months later as part of a trade deal tied to rare earths. Huawei has been unable to access those tools because it remains on a US trade blacklist. That forced Huawei, SMIC and Chinese academic institutions to build their own tools and flows. Researchers at Peking University recently announced a prototype EDA tool for Huawei’s LogicFolding architecture, which requires a new flow to handle the multilayer layout and floorplan. This is not the same as replacing the full Synopsys or Cadence stack, but it shows where domestic EDA is headed: toward tighter co-optimization between architecture, process and packaging. These advances are also diffusing into the Chinese ecosystem. SMIC is licensing its N+2 and N+3 processes to HLMC/Hua Hong at the government’s direction rather than by choice. If the same process learning feeds into Ascend accelerators for AI training and inference, the choke point shifts from one named fab to an ecosystem. Alibaba’s T-Head silicon arm and Cambricon, a Chinese AI chip designer that is expected to supply ByteDance, could also be major beneficiaries. Sanctions aimed at SMIC alone become less effective once the manufacturing knowledge has spread to other fabs and design houses. China is not closing the gap with Intel, Samsung and TSMC. The teardown shows the opposite in several places: no EUV, no backside power, higher process complexity, and visible trade-offs. But China is still advancing. If domestic chips become good enough for phones, inference, networking and security-sensitive workloads, they can matter strategically without matching TSMC at the leading edge. Behind the paywall, we show what else STEEL can do, with material and process flow analysis of SMIC N+3, and analysis of the Kirin 9030 package. We’re diving deep into the most advanced datacenter and AI hardware hitting the market. To learn more about what’s in the pipeline, access the full Kirin 9030 and SMIC N+3 analysis or to commission a custom teardown, contact sales@semianalysis.com.
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