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The Kirin chipsets of Huawei run out of stock

Various of Huawei’s devices like the P40 series, the Huawei Mate 30 series, and others are based on Kirin chips. According to some reports, the Kirin chips by Huawei are out of stock. Kirin chipsets were quite significant for Huawei. Since they made the company less dependable on Snapdragon chipsets.

Everything was fine for the Chinese company until the US put sanctions. These sanctions were placed owing to security concerns. Such bans and restrictions have badly affected the company’s business. One includes the limitation in the production of Kirin chips. Since the development of Kirin chips is based on American tech.

Though, Huawei had stockpiles of chips when the US imposed sanctions. But unfortunately, they were only there to cater for a few years. And as of now, they have run out of stock. This situation has left many wondering what will be the next step of the company. Does this indicate that the business is folded? Are there any alternate plans or measures?

We expect that Huawei does have a second chance for upscaling its business.

The sanction by the US government has badly impacted the company in most areas. It is nearly impossible for Huawei to utilize American tech in its chip development. Furthermore, these sanctions stopped TSMC from manufacturing Kirin chips. As a result, Huawei relied on SMIC, the local Chinese manufacturer.  

SMIC is the largest chip manufacturer in China. But still, it does not have the capacity for building flagship processors. The flagship processors are based on low fabrication processes like 4nm and 3nm. Presently, MSIC manufactures chips based on the 7nm process. As compared to 4nm or 3nm, 7nm processes are relatively less efficient.

To address the current situation, Huawei requires a technology that is capable of manufacturing chips in low fabrication tech. The company can access this tech from ASML, the Dutch company, that deals with Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography (EUV) technology. Currently, this tech is not available for Chinese companies. Since the US has collaborated with the Netherlands for limiting the access of Chinese companies to buying the required machinery.

But there is always room for change. If the economic situation of the Netherlands escalates then they might sell their machines to China. Therefore, Huawei could start production of its own chips in Chinese foundries. Thus, Huawei will be working independently of American technology. Well, this is just a preliminary discussion. We have to wait for the progress regarding this issue.