Chinese tech giant ZTE is set to release 7nm 5G chips in the second half of 2019, according to a recent DigiTimes report, citing company president Xu Ziyang. The move comes before the company migrates to 5nm, which will happen subsequently.

ZTE has also managed to secure 25 5G contracts (compared to Huawei’s 50), and managed to ship over 50,000 5G base stations (compared to Huawei’s 150,000). This all happened at the 5G Summit, held alongside MWC Shanghai 2019, where ZTE also showcased 5G-enabled products, including the ZTE Axon 10 Pro 5G.

Xu Ziyang also talked about ZTE’s 5G patent portfolio, consisting of 73,000 patents as of the end of 2018, which include over 35,000 globally-licensed patents, and more than 3,000 strategic patents for 5G technologies, according to DigiTimes.