September 15 is the key date for Huawei. This is the last day that US suppliers will be able to do business with Huawei and consequently the last day that Huawei will be able to manufacture its Kirin processor . According to the Asian media Caixin , from Huawei they indicated that they lack the ability to manufacture their own chips right now, so the Huawei Mate 40 will be the company’s last smartphone to come with a Kirin inside. USA forced Huawei to stop manufacturing its Kirin chip.
The US government severely restrained Huawei last year by not allowing it to use US services like Google’s . This ban has been tightened in recent months, also prohibiting the use of US technology by Huawei suppliers that make products for the company. The entry into force of this measure is on September 15, and from Huawei they already warn of what is coming. Due to security issues USA forced Huawei to stop manufacturing its Kirin chip.
According to Caixin , Richard Yu (Huawei CEO) commented on the following at a conference in Shenzhen last week:
“After September 15, we will not be able to produce our flagship chipsets or our chips with artificial intelligence processing capabilities; this is a great loss for us. “
The latest generation of Kirin chips
The Kirin processors are Huawei alternative to Qualcomm for its smartphones. Designed by the brand itself and manufactured with the help of vendors such as TSMC, the Kirin have been present in Huawei smartphones in recent years. The Kirin 985 was the last to arrive last April with 7nm and 5G architecture. 2020 may be the last year for Kirin, with the Huawei Mate 40 as the icing on the cake from Huawei they indicated that they lack the ability to manufacture their own chips right now, so the Huawei Mate 40 will be the company’s last smartphone to come with a Kirin inside. Huawei is forced to stop manufacturing its Kirin chip due to US sanctions.
This is because TSMC, which makes the vast majority of Kirin chips for Huawei, has indicated that it relies on American technology for this (something that has already been rumored since May ). Given the sanctions imposed by the United States, it will not be possible to continue manufacturing the processor. At the China Indo 100 conference held this last week, the Huawei executive confirmed the cessation of manufacturing, according to AP .
Last week data came out from Canalys that positioned Huawei as the largest mobile manufacturer in the world , surpassing Samsung for the first time. This was partly due to production and sales in a strong first quarter of 2020. Something that however appears to be set to change in the coming months, according to Huawei, this year’s smartphone sales are likely to be lower than the 2019 level.
During the last year the blockades by the United States have been postponed or half. Now, however, they all seem to be beginning to be effective and we can really see how Huawei is affected by not being able to collaborate with US companies. At the moment we already know what it is like to use a Huawei mobile without Google services (and waiting for Harmony OS ), now it remains to be seen which processors will carry the following.