Tao (τ) Law! Huawei Formally Announces New Law in Semiconductor Field

At the 2026 International Symposium on Circuits and Systems held in Shanghai on May 25, He Tingbo, Director of Huawei and President of its Semiconductor Business, formally announced the "Tao (τ) Law" during her keynote speech titled "Exploration and Practice of New Pathways for Semiconductors." This marks the first time a Chinese entity has proposed a new guiding principle for industry development in the global semiconductor field. Based on this law, Huawei has successfully designed and mass‑produced 381 chips over the past six years. This autumn, Huawei will launch a new Kirin mobile phone chip that fully adopts logic folding technology, significantly improving relevant performance.

The "Tao Law" proposes replacing "geometric scaling" with "temporal scaling." With the systematic goal of reducing the time constant (tau, τ), it employs innovative techniques such as logic folding to continuously compress signal propagation delays and steadily increase transistor density, thereby enabling the sustained evolution of semiconductors and electronic systems.

In recent years, Moore's Law has faced dual challenges from physical limits and economic viability. As geometric scaling of transistors slows down and cost benefits gradually diminish, overcoming the limitations of traditional process paths and exploring a completely new, sustainable evolutionary path to meet the exponentially growing demand for computing performance has become a common and urgent challenge for the global semiconductor industry.

The "Tao Law" establishes a multi‑level collaborative optimization system spanning devices, circuits, chips, and system architecture. It is projected that by 2031, the transistor density of high‑end chips based on this law will reach a level equivalent to that of the 1.4nm process node.

Regarding the future development of the semiconductor industry, He Tingbo stated: "The future certainly belongs to open cooperation. Under the path of the Tao Law, we look forward to working closely with scientists, engineers, and industry partners worldwide to jointly promote the sustainable development of the semiconductor and electronics industries."