HiSilicon, Qualcomm, Intel, MediaTek and Broadcom are all looking to line up their new products for handsets and mobile base stations, and other applications built on AI and 5G technologies at the 2019 MWC that kicks off on February 25.

Qualcomm will show off its flagship Snapdragon 855 series mobile SoC that will power several new 5G smartphones. Qualcomm will showcase its Snapdragon X55 5G modem at the trade exhibition in Barcelona. Both chip solutions are manufactured using TSMC's 7nm FinFET process technology.

Huawei is expected to introduce its new Balong 5000 series smartphone equipped with 5G baseband developed by HiSilicon during the trade show next week, while MediaTek's lineup will include its Helio M70 and other 5G chip.

HiSilicon and MediaTek both partner with TSMC to manufacture their advanced 7nm products.

In addition, TSMC has obtained 7nm chip orders for 5G related applications including HPC and IoT from AMD, Nvidia, Xilinx, NXP, OmniVision and TI.

Then when Apple pulls its finger out in 2020 TSMC will make it a 5nm chip for its 5G iPhone.

Despite its dim business and industry outlook this year, TSMC claimed it is making progress in the development of sub-7nm process technologies with plans to move a newer 5nm EUV process to volume production by 2020 well on track.