Huawei’s president of consumer Richard Yu says the company is running out of supply of its HiSilicon Kirin smartphone chips and that US sanctions will force it to stop production of its most high-end chips (via The Associated Press).
Speaking at Chinese industry conference China Info 100, Yu said:
“This is a very big loss for us … Unfortunately, in the second round of U.S. sanctions, our chip producers only accepted orders until May 15. Production will close on Sept. 15 … This year may be the last generation of Huawei Kirin high-end chips.”
It is thought Huawei has enough supply to ship the upcoming Mate 40 phone, though it might well be the last Huawei smartphone to use the company’s own high-performance processors.
Ongoing US sanctions place Huawei on the US’ Entity List, prevented Huawei from trading with American companies. Huawei had until now been able to continue to produce its Kirin chips at every level including for the premium P40 and P40 Pro phones but now the contractors who make the chips have to stop on 15 September as they use US manufacturing technology. We reported on the potential for this to happen back in February.
The US continues to accuse Huawei of creating technology that is a backdoor for the Chinese Communist Party to use to filter data back to China, presenting a security risk. Huawei denies the claims, but the Trump administration has come down hard on the company.
Some commentators see the Trump administration use Huawei as a scapegoat for US suspicion of China. Either way, Huawei is one of the companies at the centre of the escalating trade tensions between the two nations.
The news of Huawei’s Kirin woes comes days after Trump issued two executive orders targeting heavy restrictions against Chinese apps WeChat and TikTok.
Author: Henry Burrell, Phones Editor
Henry is Tech Advisor’s Phones Editor, ensuring he and the team covers and reviews every smartphone worth knowing about for readers and viewers all over the world. He spends a lot of time moving between different handsets and shouting at WhatsApp to support multiple devices at once.