Huawei’s new chipset, the HiSilicon Kirin 710A which is based on the 14nm process, has finally entered the mass-production stage, making it the first pure Chinese chip with independent intellectual property rights.

The chipset is also the first one for the company to be manufactured by Shanghai-based Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC). Both the companies reportedly started working on this chipset since last year.

As per the report, almost every employee of SMIC Shanghai received an Honor Play 4T smartphone last week which has “Powered by SMIC FinFET” printed on the back, showcasing the commercialisation of 14-nm FinFET chips made by SMIC.

While nothing much about the chipset is know, it is believed that Huawei is re-releasing the Kirin 710 processor branded as the Kirin 710A, but this time with a 14nm FinFET process. The original Kirin 710 SoC is made using the 12nm node by TSMC.

The Chinese giant isn’t yet ready to retire its Kirin 710 series and it keeps launching new variants of the chipset. Prior to this new 710A, the company had launched Kirin 710F which is powering the Honor 9X and Honor Play 3 smartphones.

The development comes just weeks after it was reported that Huawei is shifting its 14nm chipset orders from TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) to SMIC which is China’s leading chipmaker.

This seems like a major blow to TSMC which has been historically manufacturing Huawei’s HiSilicon chips, ranging anywhere from its 14nm, 12nm or even 7 or 5nm chipsets. This could be a trial run by the company to shift productions closer to its home. The decision seems to have been taken after the United States government recently tried hampering Huawei’s operations by limiting its chip supplies through TSMC.