According to a report by South Korean media “TheElec”, despite facing a new wave of sanctions from the United States, Huawei still has enough chips in stock for 5G base stations. This limits U.S. sanctions to chips that Huawei uses in smartphones, with limited impact on base station-related businesses.

The report quoted people familiar with the matter and pointed out that since 2019, Huawei has placed enough chip inventory to the outside world for the 5G base station business. Moreover, these chips for 5G base stations have a longer life cycle than those used in smartphones. Therefore, Huawei, which is currently the main supplier of 4G and 5G base stations for South Korean telecommunications company LG Uplus, will not be affected by the current related business in South Korea.

A few days ago, the U.S. Department of Commerce imposed a new wave of embargo sanctions against Huawei and its 70 branches, requiring the U.S. government’s permission to obtain semiconductor products produced using U.S. equipment or technology. This sanction order prevents TSMC, the leading wafer foundry, from producing smartphone chips designed by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon, and TSMC will also stop production from September 15, 2020, and supply HiSilicon. designed chip.

In this regard, Huawei executives also confirmed the news in relevant public occasions, saying that because TSMC will no longer assist in the production of the Kirin 9000 processor on the new Mate 40 series flagship smartphones since mid-September, this makes Kirin The 9000 processor will be the last generation of Huawei HiSilicon Kirin series processors.

Although Huawei HiSilicon’s self-developed Kirin series of smartphone chips will be cut off due to the impact of the US sanctions, the chips used in 5G base stations are still in a normal state. In January 2019, Huawei announced the Tiangang chip for 5G base stations. This 5G base station chip, which can support the 3.5GHz and 2.6GHz frequency bands, is built on TSMC’s 7nm process. It is also because Tiangang chips have already begun to commission TSMC to produce them before they were announced in 2019. Therefore, before facing U.S. sanctions, Huawei had at least a year and a half to reserve Tiangang chips, which made the product’s inventory sufficient, and the mass production of related products was not affected.

The report further pointed out that compared with the chips used in smartphones, the chips used in 5G base stations make the chips themselves pay more attention to reliability and stability because of the outdoor environment, which makes these chips have a long life cycle. Usually only need to update the relevant software for continuous use, which also makes Huawei’s business in this part of the business not affected for a short time.

SEMI: Call on U.S. officials to give “Huawei ban” a 120-day grace period

In response to the new US ban, the semiconductor Association International (SEMI) issued a statement pointing out that the upgrade of Huawei’s control will have a serious negative impact, which will eventually damage the US semiconductor industry and allow other companies to replace US technology, and called on the US official to give another 120 days. grace period.

The U.S. upgrade of the Huawei ban has aroused great concern in the semiconductor industry. Following the US Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) warning that the move will have a significant negative impact on the U.S. semiconductor industry, SEMI, representing more than 2,000 semiconductor-related companies and more than 1.3 million industry professionals around the world, also The statement said the new U.S. export control rules would curb the willingness to buy U.S.-made equipment and design software, and have cost companies unrelated to Huawei nearly $17 million.

The Commerce Department’s decision to significantly expand unilateral restrictions could lead to more lost sales and even erode the customer base for U.S. products, SEMI said, adding that the new restrictions would deepen perceptions of unreliable U.S. technology supplies and further spur outflows. More options to replace U.S. technology could reduce the revenue of U.S. semiconductor companies, affect research and development resources, and undermine U.S. innovation, thereby undermining national security. As a result, SEMI is asking the U.S. Department of Commerce to extend the grace period for products manufactured before August 17 by 120 days to ensure predictable and immediate decision-making, and to provide greater flexibility for products not related to 5G.