After chip breakthrough, US could think of new sanctions on Huawei: Report

Huawei is making headlines with its hidden chip breakthrough and the company might now have more popularity in the US commerce ministry to think of new sanctions than ever before.

A Huawei Mate 60 Pro teardown from TechInsights revealed that the phone has a new chip made with advanced 7nm processing technology. The chip is identified as Kirin 9000s, which has become a matter of discussion in the tech community.

“It demonstrates the technical progress China’s semiconductor industry has been able to make without EUV tools. The difficulty of this achievement also shows the resilience of the country’s chip technological ability,” TechInsights analyst Dan Hutcheson said.

The achievement may not be significant but the return of 5G in Huawei smartphones could bring a big change in the phone maker’s market strategy.

Jefferies analysts say that the latest chip breakthrough from Huawei could draw a probe from the U.S. Commerce Department. It’s said that the probe could launch even “stricter” sanctions on Huawei. Since Huawei is a Chinese company, it may be placed inside the competition bill that the US is preparing against China.

In 2019, the US commerce minister added Huawei to the blacklist, which bans the company from purchasing US technologies. This includes chipset and Google mobile services. The restrictions also restrict Huawei from printing new chips from TSMC.

This led to a severe lack in its flagship chip inventory and the company had to give up on in-house Kirin chips. Yet, Huawei kept on researching new chip designs and helped the Chinese semiconductor industry to make new products.

However, the company kept each step low-key and didn’t reveal anything in public. A week ago, Huawei silently unveiled the Mate 60 Pro in China during the visit of US Secretary of Commerce, Gina Raimondo. Also, Huawei is still keeping the chip hidden from any promotional activity, at least for now.

Eventually, the US State and Commerce Ministry did not confirm any new sanctions on Huawei after the chip breakthrough news. But we’ll keep you posted with all of the latest updates on this matter.

(source – Reuters)