Huawei building vast chip equipment R&D center in Shanghai

TAIPEI -- Huawei Technologies is building a massive semiconductor equipment research and development center in Shanghai as the Chinese tech titan continues to beef up its chip supply chain to counter a U.S. crackdown.

The center's mission includes building lithography machines, vital equipment for producing cutting-edge chips. Washington's export controls have sharply reduced Huawei's access to this equipment, whose production is dominated by just three companies: ASML of the Netherlands and Japan's Nikon and Canon.