More Huawei sanctions go into effect from today. What does that mean?

The US government initiated a number of additional sanctions against Huawei earlier this year, targeting the smartphone manufacturer’s ability to produce phones and associated components.

Some of these sanctions go into effect from today, September 15, 2020. What does this mean for Huawei and its customers?

No more flagship Kirin processors

The White House issued stiffer restrictions against Huawei in May 2020, forcing foreign chip producers making chips with US equipment to cease production and shipments for Huawei.

Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC is one of these affected companies and is now barred from producing and shipping chipsets for Huawei as of today. The chipmaker reportedly stopped taking new orders for the Chinese brand soon after the restrictions were first announced back in May. Up until today, however, it was apparently allowed to fulfill orders already in production and those taken before this new restriction was announced.

At least one of the upcoming Mate 40 series phones will indeed be packing the new Kirin flagship processor. Supplies won’t last though, so we’re not expecting the P50 series to offer this new Kirin SoC if the Mate 40 series does well enough.

Huawei consumer CEO Yu Chengdong said last month that Kirin chipsets “cannot be manufactured” after September 15. He was presumably referring to the flagship and upper mid-range tier of chipsets as China’s SMIC recently mass-produced the budget-focused Kirin 710A processor on a 14nm process.

No more MediaTek support?

No Kirin flagship processor means Huawei needs to source chipsets from other companies, as it’s believed that domestic chipmakers don’t have the know-how to make bleeding-edge flagship processors just yet. One of the front-running companies to deliver flagship chipsets to Huawei was MediaTek, but it was also subject to sanctions as of today.

Huawei had also been making increasing use of MediaTek chipsets in its mid-range devices this year, with the likes of the Dimensity 800 family appearing in several phones. This could affect more than just Huawei’s flagship segment.

MediaTek confirmed late last month that it would be abiding by the latest US sanctions, and noted that it has applied for a license to continue business with Huawei.

Companies like Microsoft previously secured a license in this regard, which is why Huawei’s Matebook line is able to offer Windows. At the time of writing, however, other companies like Google and Qualcomm have yet to receive the green light from Washington.

Display supplies from LG and Samsung

Credit: Robert Triggs / Android Authority

Another casualty in this escalating action against Huawei is the supply of displays from LG and Samsung. The two companies reportedly decided to suspend the supply of “premium” displays to Huawei by today.

Huawei has made use of displays from the likes of LG, Samsung, and China’s BOE for its high-end needs, so that seemingly leaves only one big-name supplier. However, it’s believed that Huawei is testing screens from domestic companies like CSOT, Tianma, and Visionox. In other words, there are definitely alternative suppliers here.

Displays also require special chips to drive them and enable touch (in addition to the SoC), and a report published last week suggests that Huawei might experience trouble in obtaining these special touch and display chips, as well as power management chips. Nevertheless, DigiTimes reported last month that Huawei and SMIC have teamed up to develop some display chips.

Memory supply could be constrained

Memory suppliers Samsung and SK Hynix moved to suspend dealings with Huawei earlier this month, in accordance with the latest sanctions going into effect today. The two firms supply RAM used in smartphones and tablets.

In saying so, the two companies have reportedly applied for licenses to continue supplying these components to Huawei. Again, some companies have succeeded in obtaining these licenses while others have yet to receive approval over a year later.

There are other companies supplying RAM for use in mobile devices though, but it’s unclear whether they are bound by sanctions too.

That’s it for our rundown of the latest US sanctions against Huawei. Have we missed out on something? Please let us know via the comments section below.