Tech war: Huawei surprises again with low-key presales of top-of-the-line Mate 60 Pro+ as US-blacklisted firm stays mum over ‘breakthrough’ 5G mobile chip
Huawei on Friday started offering its top-of-the-line Mate 60 Pro+ smartphone for a US$136 down payment and expected delivery no later than October 9
The 5G handset has 4 gigabytes more memory than the Pro version and offers a 1-terabyte maximum storage option, same as Apple ’s iPhone 14 Pro Max
Shenzhen-based Huawei, which launched a low-key presales campaign for the Mate 60 Pro last week, on Friday started offering online the Mate 60 Pro+ handset for a 1,000 yuan (US$136) down payment and expected delivery no later than October 9. This top-of-the-line Mate handset has 4 gigabytes more memory than the Pro version, which sells for 6,999 yuan, and offers a 1-terabyte maximum storage option, same as Apple’s iPhone 14 Pro Max.
The new 5G smartphone model from Huawei, which last released 5G handsets under its Mate 40 series in October 2020 before the Mate 60 Pro, is likely to heat up scrutiny on the company and suspected chip supplier Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC), as both firms are under the US trade blacklist.
“Huawei’s new phone is expected to add to the already fraught distrust between the US and China,” said Arisa Liu, a semiconductor research director at the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research. She predicted the US to become more guarded against China in the foreseeable future, with Washington’s decoupling or “de-risking” efforts expected to continue.
Pedestrians walk past an advertisement for Huawei Technologies’ new Mate 60-series 5G smartphones outside a Huawei store in Shanghai on September 8, 2023. Photo: Reuters
At a briefing on Friday, China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said that Beijing opposes US abuse of its state power to suppress Chinese companies. She indicated that further US sanctions will only make China more determined in technology self-sufficiency.
Influential Republican lawmaker Mike Gallagher, who chairs the House of Representatives’ committee on China, on Wednesday called on the US Department of Commerce to end all technology exports to both Huawei and SMIC, following the recent discovery of advanced new chips used on the new Mate smartphone, according to a Reuters report.
“This chip likely could not be produced without US technology and thus, SMIC may have violated the Department of Commerce’s Foreign Direct Product Rule,” Gallagher said in a statement.
Canadian semiconductor research firm TechInsights said in its handset teardown analysis that SMIC made the Kirin 9000s via its 7-nanometer process, known as the N+2 node. This has fuelled speculation that the country’s top chip foundry was helping Huawei clandestinely overcome stifling US tech sanctions.
A Kirin 9000s processor, developed by Huawei Technologies’ chip design arm HiSilicon and reportedly fabricated in China by Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp, is taken from a Huawei Mate 60 Pro smartphone in Ottawa, capital of Canada, on September 3, 2023. Photo: Bloomberg
South Korean memory chip maker SK Hynix said it has opened an investigation into the use of its chips in the Mate 60 Pro after TechInsights’ handset teardown found its memory and flash storage inside the device, according to a Bloomberg report. “SK Hynix is strictly abiding by the US government’s export restrictions,” a company spokeswoman was quoted in the report as saying.
Huawei, which was added to the US trade blacklist in May 2019, might have bought personnel, equipment and know-how from SMIC in a buy-out deal to set up its own foundries, according to industry sources who declined to be identified, echoing a Hong Kong-based analyst’s recent comments.
“While the Kirin 9000s may have similar build structure as other chips made by SMIC, it could have actually been built by Huawei,” Jefferies equity analyst Edison Lee said in an interview on Tuesday, reiterating his views in a research note published on the same day. “We believe it is highly likely that Huawei bought SMIC technology and equipment to develop the Kirin 9000s.”
Still, the existence of the Kirin 9000s in Huawei’s latest 5G smartphone series has been hailed as a victory for mainland China and a “breakthrough” for the country’s tech self-sufficiency efforts.
The official China Daily said in an editorial this week that the Mate 60 Pro “thumbs the nose at US sanctions” because it “shows how ineffective Washington’s tech sanctions have been”, while the nationalist tabloid Global Times said in an editorial last week that Huawei’s new 5G handset was proof that “extreme suppression by the US has failed”.
While consumers on the mainland have shown strong interest in Huawei’s latest 5G smartphone, some of the company’s suppliers have played down the impact of the new handset.
Shanghai-listed Keystone Technology Co, a Huawei supplier that reported as much as a 40 per cent gain in its share price this week, said its Huawei-related exposure accounted for only “1 to 2 per cent” of its total business. Another supplier, Shenzhen Sea Star, indicated that its business related to Huawei was “relatively small”.
It remains unknown what actions would be taken by the US Commerce Department in response to the controversy over the new Huawei 5G handset’s advanced processor.
