(Reuters) – Huawei will prevent the production of its flagship Kirin chipsets next month, Caixin currency magazine said Saturday, as the effect of US pressure on The Chinese tech giant increased. U.S. pressure on Huawei suppliers has prevented the company’s HiSilicon chip department from manufacturing chipsets, key parts for cell phones, said Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei’s customer business unit, at the launch of the company’s new Mate 40 phone.
At a time when U.S.-China relations are at their worst in decades, Washington is urging governments around the world to remove Huawei, saying it would hand over knowledge to the Chinese government for espionage. Huawei denies spying on China. The United States is also the extradition of Meng Wanzhou, HUAWEI’s CFO, from Canada for bank fraud. In May, the U.S. Department of Commerce issued orders requiring suppliers of software and production appliances not to do business with Huawei without first obtaining a license.
“As of September 15, our flagship Kirin processors will no longer be produced,” Yu said, according to Caixin. “Our AI-powered chips can’t be processed either. It’s a huge loss for us.”
Huawei’s HiSilicon department relies on software from U.S. corporations such as Cadence Design Systems and Synopsys to design their chips, and outsources production to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, which uses appliances from U.S. corporations. Huawei declined to comment on the Caixin report. TSMC, Cadence and Synopsys did not respond to requests for comments by email.
HiSilicon produces a wide variety of chips, adding its diversity of Kirin processors, which only force Huawei smartphones and are the only Chinese processors capable of competing with Qualcomm’s quality. “Huawei started exploring the flea industry more than 10 years ago, starting from a long past to catch up, and then a leader,” Yu said. “We have invested great resources for studies and progression and have gone through a complicated process.”