Huawei will stop making its Kirin chipsets from next month, as US sanctions limit its ability to source materials, the company confirmed. That means Huawei’s new high-end Mate 40 handsets debuting this fall will be the last smartphones featuring the company’s most advanced processor, Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei’s consumer business, said at an event in Shenzhen reported by Caixin Global.
He called it a “huge loss” to the company. The new rules against Huawei take effect 15 September. These target the Chinese company's semiconductor supply chain and require chipmakers to obtain a special permit from the US Commerce Department in order to sell to Huawei.
The Mate 40 will be powered by Huawei’s Kirin 9000 processor, with more powerful 5G and AI processing capabilities, Yu said.The Kirin 9000 chipsets have been produced by TSMC with US equipment. In July, the Taiwan contract chipmaker said it stopped taking new orders from Huawei in May.
Yu also said Huawei’s smartphone shipments this year will be less than last year’s 240 million units due to the chip shortage caused by the US trade ban.
Yu said he regretted that Huawei had only invested in developing chips, not in manufacturing them. He said Huawei is determined to solve the problems by making breakthroughs in technology innovations on operation systems, chips, data and cloud services. He also called on China’s chip industry to make advancements on chip manufacturing and new generation semiconductors.
