A few days ago we informed, that Qualcomm should have obtained an export license from the US government allowing it to supply chips to Huawei again. However, the news has now leaked into the air that this license has a major catch – it is said to allow Qualcomm to supply the Chinese smartphone giant only with chips that do not support 5G networks.
KeyBanc analyst John Vinh came with the information that the license applies only to chips with support for 4G networks. He also hinted that it is highly unlikely that the US Commerce Department will give Qualcomm permission to supply Huawei 5G chipsets anytime soon.
You could be interested in
If she was informace true, it would be a big blow to the Chinese tech giant, as it is one of the world leaders when it comes to 5G phones, and not being able to sell them would significantly affect its market position.
Its former main chip supplier, Taiwanese semiconductor giant TSMC, is also said to have obtained a license to do business with Huawei these days, but the permission is said to only apply to chipsets made using older processes, not chips made using advanced lithography processes such as 7 and 5nm.
In November, there were also reports that Huawei planned to build its own factory in Shanghai, China's most populous city, to produce chips that would do without American technology entirely, so that it would not be subject to the regulations of the US Department of Commerce. Huawei is said to imagine that it will initially produce 45nm chips, later - at the end of next year - chips based on the 28nm process, and by the end of next year 20nm chips with support for 5G networks. But it's clear that making its own chips at this rate won't solve its acute problems of sourcing flagship chips for its high-end smartphones. Just for fun - the Apple A45 chip it used was manufactured using the 4nm process iPhone 4 of 2010.
