With the U.S. Department of Commerce’s harassment of Huawei, it is now up to the US government to decide whether or not Huawei may be entitled to TSMC chipsets. The new change in export rules requires that all chips made with U.S. technology obtain a license before they can land on Huawei equipment. For now, it is still possible to have access to the chips that are already in production, at least until September 14th. In other words, Mate 40 must be guaranteed, together with the 5nm Kirin 1020 chipset. But then everything will change and this is where Snapdragon comes into Huawei’s life.
Huawei P50 and Mate 50 saved by Snapdragon chipsets!
But what happens in 2024 when Huawei needs 5nm chips for the P50 range? Some business has already been transferred to SMIC, one of the largest Chinese factories. However, the most advanced chip they can produce uses 14nm technology. SMIC is said to be working in the 7nm and 8nm manufacturing modes, but this is not easy due to the lack of advanced lithographic equipment. (Most come from the United States, or use technology from this country). For SMIC to go down to 5 nm it will need two things- time and cutting-edge equipment.
In other words, SMIC is out of the game until 2021. However, Huawei has other options. According to an analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets, Qualcomm will supply Huawei Snapdragon chipsets for the P50 and Mate 50 next year. Of course, a US Department of Commerce license would be required. However, he believes that such an order will be granted and that Qualcomm will reach an agreement with Huawei.
The big question is- what is the reason for the United States to accept this deal?
According to the analyst who addressed this novelty, “many of the restrictions imposed on Huawei are related to national security issues”. More specifically everything that involves 5G. Now if these devices used Qualcomm’s connectivity technologies, technically there would be no danger. In addition, an American company would have much to gain from selling chipsets to Huawei.
