Huawei is Building Secret Network for Chips, Trade Group Reportedly Warns

FILE PHOTO: The Huawei logo is seen at its booth during the Mobile World Congress in Shanghai, China June 28, 2023. REUTERS/Nicoco Chan/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: The Huawei logo is seen at its booth during the Mobile World Congress in Shanghai, China June 28, 2023. REUTERS/Nicoco Chan/File Photo
TT
20

Huawei is Building Secret Network for Chips, Trade Group Reportedly Warns

FILE PHOTO: The Huawei logo is seen at its booth during the Mobile World Congress in Shanghai, China June 28, 2023. REUTERS/Nicoco Chan/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: The Huawei logo is seen at its booth during the Mobile World Congress in Shanghai, China June 28, 2023. REUTERS/Nicoco Chan/File Photo

Huawei Technologies Co is building a collection of secret semiconductor-fabrication facilities across China to let the company skirt US sanctions, a Washington-based semiconductor association has warned, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday.

The Chinese tech giant moved into chip production last year and is receiving an estimated $30 billion in state funding from the government, the Semiconductor Industry Association said, adding that Huawei has acquired at least two existing plants and is building three others.

The US Commerce Department had added Huawei to its export control list in 2019 over security concerns. The company denies being a security risk.

If Huawei is constructing facilities under names of other companies as Semiconductor Industry Association says, then it might be able to circumvent US government restrictions to indirectly purchase American chip-making equipment, according to the Bloomberg report.

Huawei and the Semiconductor Industry Association did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.

Huawei has been placed on a trade blacklist in the United States, restricting most suppliers from shipping goods and technology to the company unless they were granted licenses.

Officials have continued to tighten the controls to cut off the company's ability to buy or design the semiconductor chips that power most of its products.



Sam Altman Says Meta Offered $100 Million Bonuses to OpenAI Employees 

The logo of Meta is seen at the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, France, June 11, 2025. (Reuters) 
The logo of Meta is seen at the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, France, June 11, 2025. (Reuters) 
TT
20

Sam Altman Says Meta Offered $100 Million Bonuses to OpenAI Employees 

The logo of Meta is seen at the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, France, June 11, 2025. (Reuters) 
The logo of Meta is seen at the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, France, June 11, 2025. (Reuters) 

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said Meta has offered his employees bonuses of $100 million to recruit them, as the tech giant seeks to ramp up its artificial intelligence strategy.

The alleged attempts by Meta to hire OpenAI staffers are the latest signs of a frenzy to hire top engineers to develop AI models, and they come at a time when the Facebook owner is working on building its superintelligence unit to catch up with competitors.

Competition for AI talent has reached a feverish pitch as superstar researchers are being courted like professional athletes on the belief that individual contributors can make or break companies.

"They (Meta) started making giant offers to a lot of people on our team," Altman said on the Uncapped podcast that aired on Tuesday, hosted by his brother. "You know, like $100 million signing bonuses, more than that (in) compensation per year."

"At least, so far, none of our best people have decided to take them up on that," Altman said.

Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours, and Reuters could not verify the information.

"I've heard that Meta thinks of us as their biggest competitor," Altman said.

His comments come just days after Meta invested $14.3 billion in data-labeling startup Scale AI, and hired its top boss, Alexandr Wang, to lead its new superintelligence team.

Meta, once recognized as a leader in open-source AI models, has suffered from staff departures and has postponed the launches of new open-source AI models that could rival competitors like Google, China's DeepSeek and OpenAI.