Huawei Technologies will stop making its flagship Kirin chipsets next month, financial magazine Caixin said on Saturday, as the impact of US pressure on the Chinese tech giant mounts.
Pressure from the US on Huawei’s suppliers has made it impossible for the company’s HiSilicon chip division to continue to manufacture the chipsets, key components for mobile phones, said Richard Yu, executive director of the Consumer Business Unit. from Huawei on the upcoming launch of the company’s new Mate. 40 at an industry conference, China Info 100. A report from the Chinese publication IT Home appointment Yu says that the Huawei Mate 40 will still sport a flagship Kirin SoC.
With US-China relations at their worst in decades, Washington is pressuring governments around the world to expel Huawei, arguing that it would hand over data to the Chinese government for spying. Huawei denies that it spies for China.
The United States is also seeking the extradition from Canada of Huawei’s CFO Meng Wanzhou, accused of bank fraud.
In May, the US Department of Commerce issued orders requiring vendors of software and manufacturing equipment to refrain from doing business with Huawei without first obtaining a license.
“From September 15 onwards, our flagship Kirin processors cannot be produced,” Yu said, according to Caixin. “Our AI-powered chips cannot be processed either. This is a huge loss for us.”
Huawei’s HiSilicon division relies on software from US companies such as Cadence Design Systems Inc or Synopsys to design its chips and outsources production to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), which uses equipment from US companies.
Huawei declined to comment on the Caixin report. TSMC, Cadence, and Synopsys did not immediately respond to email requests for comment.
HiSilicon produces a wide range of chips, including its Kirin line of processors, which only power Huawei smartphones and are the only Chinese processors that can compete with Qualcomm’s in quality.
“Huawei started exploring the chip industry more than 10 years ago, starting from a long lag, a little lag, catching up, and then a leader,” Yu said. “We invested huge resources in R&D and we went through a difficult process.”
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