Industry sources cited by Reuters have revealed that Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications giant, is slowing down the production of its high-end Mate 60 series smartphone due to surging demand in the AI chip market and production constraints. Instead, the company has decided to prioritize the production of AI chips from its Ascend series, diverging from the Kirin chips used in the Mate 60 series.

According to a report by Reuters on January 5th, Huawei is utilizing a plant to simultaneously produce chips from the Ascend series and the Kirin series. The current plan is to prioritize the production of Ascend chips over Kirin chips, although the exact starting date for this arrangement has not been disclosed.

On the other hand, the production volume of Huawei’s Mate 60 series, launched in August last year, has been hampered by low chip yields. Reportedly, Huawei is actively working to improve chip yields, and it is hoped that the mentioned production adjustment will be a short-term measure.

It’s worth noting that many Huawei products have recently been affected by production bottlenecks. The computation components for Huawei’s assisted driving system have encountered production issues due to shortages of components.

This has led to delays in the delivery of flagship models from Changan Automobile, Chery Automobile, and Seres. Changan Automobile and Chery Automobile have already filed complaints and are currently in negotiations with Huawei.

Reports have indicated that since 2019, the U.S. government has imposed sanctions on Huawei, citing national security concerns, thereby cutting off Huawei’s access to advanced chip manufacturing equipment and technology and weakening its smartphone division. In response, Huawei denies posing any security risks and is actively working to rebuild its business.

In addition, Bloomberg previously reported that the Chinese government has also been directly investing to assist Huawei in building its chip supply chain since 2019, creating an exclusive supply chain for Huawei in response to the tighten restrictions.

In October 2023, the U.S. further strengthened restrictions on the export of advanced chips and chip manufacturing equipment to China, building upon previous limitations. This move forced Chinese customers to turn to domestic alternatives. Huawei’s Ascend 910B chip is considered the most competitive non-NVIDIA chip available in the Chinese market.

Huawei has maintained a low profile regarding its chip manufacturing capabilities and objectives. There is limited public information about its progress or how it successfully produces advanced chips.

In August 2023, during U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo’s visit to China, Huawei launched the Mate 60 series, garnering significant market attention.

(Photo credit: Huawei)

Since the release of the Huawei Mate 60 series smartphones, the Huawei Kirin chipset has been making a comeback with various iterations, including the Kirin 9000s and Kirin 9000E featured in the Mate 60 series. The latest update has revealed the confirmation of a new Kirin chipset named Kirin 9000W, making its debut in the Huawei MatePad Pro 13.2-inch.

According to the WeChat account ic211ic, the Huawei MatePad Pro 13.2-inch device was already available in the Chinese market last year, equipped with the Kirin 9000S chipset. However, the newly discovered Kirin 9000W is featured in the international version of the MatePad Pro 13.2” which has been launched in markets such as Malaysia, Italy, and Saudi Arabia.

The official website displays that the MatePad Pro 13.2-inch is equipped with the Kirin 9000W processor.

In other words, , the Huawei MatePad Pro 13.2-inch employs different processors in different countries, indicating that Huawei’s Kirin chipset family has added new members.

Currently, there are six different versions of the Kirin 9000 chipset available in the market, namely Kirin 9000, Kirin 9000E, Kirin 9000L, Kirin 9000S, Kirin 9000SL, and Kirin 9000W.

However, Huawei’s official websites in the mentioned markets only mention the “Kirin 9000W” without providing further details. Apart from mentioning the model, they only introduce it as an octa-core CPU. Based solely on this information, it’s challenging to determine the performance difference between Kirin 9000W and Kirin 9000S.

As per TechNews citing from sources, it has been suggested that the Kirin 9000W is likely similar to the Kirin 9000S but may offer slightly improved performance. Additionally, due to the larger size of the MatePad Pro, better temperature control might be necessary.

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(Photo credit: Huawei)

According to a report by Taiwan’s TechNews, the Huawei Kirin 9000S mobile processor, dubbed by Chinese media as “4G technology with 5G speed,” was incorporated into the Huawei Mate 60 Pro smartphone on the 29th. The phone was made available for purchase directly without a launch event or prior promotion, priced at 6,999 Chinese Yuan, sparking significant industry discussion.

The discussion around the Huawei Kirin 9000S mobile processor stems from the fact that, for the first time post the US-China trade war, a chip foundry has manufactured chips for Huawei, featuring an advanced 5-nanometer process. Does this signify a breakthrough for Chinese chip production amidst US restrictions and a leap forward in China’s semiconductor industry? At present, the answer seems to be negative.

According to insiders’ revelations, the Mate 60 Pro’s Kirin 9000S chip was manufactured by SMIC. However, key production aspects are still under US control, making breaking through these limitations quite challenging.

Screenshots shared by users indicate that Kirin is on a 5nm process. Nonetheless, technical experts widely believe that the 9000S isn’t on a 5nm process; rather, it’s on SMIC’s N+2 process.

Source: fin

SMIC is the only Chinese enterprise capable of mass-producing 14-nanometer FinFET technology. Both N+1 and N+2 processes are improvements based on the 14nm FinFET technology and are achieved through DUV lithography, bypassing US restrictions. (The most advanced processes currently require EUV lithography machines.)

SMIC has not openly stated that N+1 and N+2 are on the 7nm process. However, the chip industry generally considers N+1 to be equivalent to 7nm LPE (Low Power) technology, and N+2 to be equivalent to 7nm LPP (High Performance) technology. The shipment of the Mate 60 Pro seems to have openly revealed information about SMIC’s N+2 process reaching maturity and entering mass production.

(Photo credit: Huawei)