The history of sanctions against Huawei dates back to the presidency of Donald Trump. At the end of his term, he restricted the Chinese company’s access to American technology and set in motion large-scale processes that nearly drove the company into bankruptcy. This was followed by the increasing sanctions now imposed by the Biden administration and the rejection of Huawei equipment by other countries around the world. That is, the manufacturer had no choice but to develop its own analogues of literally everything.

Huawei created its own technology

There are still few details, but all things considered, Huawei has managed to develop its own chip for the 5G modem in a relatively short time. Almost no inferior to Qualcomm’s flagship products in terms of performance. The return of the company’s 5G flagships is expected to occur by the end of the year, and we’ll see the first announcements and rollouts in October.

Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei Consumer Business Group, confirmed that Huawei’s flagship smartphones will be returning to the market soon, but did not specify the exact dates. Chinese media, on the other hand, reported that a local company is testing basic 5G chips and, accordingly, new SoCs, aiming for slightly lower performance than the flagship level. That company is probably Huawei.

Given the fact that it is impossible to outsource American technology, it turned out that Huawei clearly manufactures the new chips itself. Reuters, Nikkei Asia and other media outlets report that since July, various research institutions have reported that Huawei is working with another Chinese microelectronics manufacturer, SMIC, to develop Huawei’s processors. But today, any Chinese chip production lags 5-7 generations behind leaders like the USA and Taiwan. While SMIC currently has a maximum capacity of 7 nanometers technology, the world’s most advanced companies are already working with 2 nanometers, and this technology will come to light in a year or two. According to the sources, the current capacity of SMIC will allow Huawei to produce 2-3 million 5G smartphones.

new factories

Also, Bloomberg writes that Huawei has received about $30 billion from the Chinese government and the city of Shenzhen for the purchase of existing factories for chip production and the construction of new factories. Meanwhile the company already acquired at least two existing factories and is building at least three new ones. They need to help the company circumvent US sanctions and help China in general continue to develop its semiconductor industry despite the restrictions imposed on it. Presumably, this means that not only will Huawei itself use the technologies created in these factories, but will also sell it to other Chinese smartphone manufacturers that can’t keep up with their Western rivals.

Bloomberg also claims that Chinese company acts on behalf of other companies without revealing its interest in buying US chip manufacturing equipment and to make other deliveries that would otherwise be prohibited. The US Department of Commerce said they are monitoring the situation and are ready to take the necessary measures. Some companies that are already part of Huawei’s secret network have been added to America’s blacklist. The Biden administration is considering the possibility of further strengthening export controls to China.