Huawei Technologies Co's chief semiconductor scientist has warned that Western chip giants, including Nvidia Corp, are approaching insurmountable physical limits in their pursuit of more powerful processors, in a rare public appearance that also showcased Huawei's alternative path forward.

A top Huawei scientist warns Nvidia will soon face a physical limit on chip performance, the ceiling Huawei says is reshaping the whole industry.

Huawei has proposed the Tau Scaling Law, which measures chip progress by signal delay rather than transistor size. Its LogicFolding design claims 53.5 per cent higher transistor…