China crafts working 3nm gate-all-around transistors without EUV — stacked nanosheets target 3nm without EUV, but full node remains distant
- ID
- 26776
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 21 Sep 2026, 8:30 PM
- Fetched
- 21 Sep 2026, 8:53 PM
- Provider
- Tom's Hardware
- Category
- technology
- Original URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/china-crafts-working-3nm-gate-all-around-transistors-without-euv-stacked-nanosheets-target-3nm-without-euv-but-full-node-remains-distant
- Source URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/feeds/all
Summary
- Score
- 4.0
- Created
- 21 Sep 2026, 8:55 PM
- Tags
- Audience
- developersai_ml_learnerssaas_founders
What happened
Chinese researchers have reportedly fabricated working 3nm gate-all-around (GAA) transistors using stacked nanosheets without relying on EUV lithography equipment, which China is restricted from accessing. However, the article notes that a full 3nm node remains far from production-ready.
Why it matters
For builders in Malaysia and Southeast Asia, this signals a potential long-term loosening of the chip supply bottleneck tied to EUV restrictions, but nothing changes in the near term. Founders and developers should not adjust hardware procurement or cloud cost assumptions based on this — a working transistor is not a manufacturable node.
Discussion angle
Whether non-EUV paths to advanced nodes could eventually shift the global AI chip supply landscape and what that means for Southeast Asian cloud and AI infrastructure costs if Chinese fabs become viable alternatives.