Huawei Technologies is set to stop manufacturing and using Kirin Processors in its flagship devices. Through an announcement published recently, the company confirmed that HiSilcon Kirin chipsets will not be used in its devices starting September 15th, 2020.
According to Richard Yu – the CEO of Huawei’s consumer Business Unit, From September 15th onwards, Kirin chips will not be produced by the company due to the current US sanctions.
Earlier in May, the US tightened its sanctions against Huawei by further limiting companies from selling chips and other hardware to the company. This not only attracted bears in the semiconductor industry, but has also forced Huawei to bow-out of its flagship chips race due to the cut base-chips supply.
In addition to announcing the end of production for Kirin Chipsets, Yu also lamented to the Caixin (a Chinese financial publication) that, the decision will be a big loss for the company and it will undo years of extensive research and development as he said:
” Huawei began exploring the chip sector over 10 years ago, starting from hugely lagging behind to slightly lagging behind to catching up, and then to a leader. We invested massive resources for R&D and went through a difficult process ”
Richard Yu – CEO Huawei Consumer Business Unit
At the moment, the Shenzhen based giant has not confirmed which chips will be used to manufacture future flagship devices. But of course, MediaTek as a neighbor next door (Chinese based) is one of the few chipmakers that might get a Knock Knock alert from Huawei.
In the event that brought to play US sanctions aligned to claims that Huawei is a threat to national security, the Chinese company has now been pushed to the wall even though it leads the current World Smartphone sales statistics. This means, hard times ahead for the Company’s operations.