Huawei is making a daring move with a new chip design innovation in the fight to increase AI chip efficiency and lower energy usage.

The business has submitted a patent application for a ternary logic technique that has the potential to transform AI chip technology and solve the problems associated with power-hungry AI applications.

Why is ternary logic crucial for AI chips, and what is it?

An alternate approach to data processing in integrated circuits is ternary logic, a computing system that uses three states (-1, 0, and 1) rather than the conventional binary logic (0 and 1).

For many years, binary logic has dominated the computing industry, but because binary systems are so prevalent, ternary logic has been studied but never fully developed.

Huawei’s patent, filed with the China National Intellectual Property Administration in September 2023 and published in April 2025, aims to leverage ternary logic to reduce the number of transistors on a chip.