'Huawei’s shift to Kirin processors to hurt Qualcomm the most'

NEW DELHI: Chinese smartphone brand Huawei’s new smartphones will fully adopt the new self-developed Kirin processors starting in 2024, a move that will hurt chip-maker Qualcomm the most, according to leading analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

According to Kuo, Qualcomm will not only lose Huawei’s orders completely from 2024 onwards “but also face the risk of a decline in shipments to non-Huawei Chinese brand clients due to the competition from Huawei”.

Huawei purchased 23-25 ​​million and 40-42 million mobile phone SoCs from Qualcomm in 2022 and 2023, respectively.

“However, it’s expected that Huawei’s new models will fully adopt the new self-developed Kirin processors starting in 2024,” said said Kuo, an analyst at TF International Securities, a financial services group in the Asia-Pacific region.

Qualcomm’s SoC shipments to Chinese smartphone brands in 2024 are expected to be at least 50-60 million units lower than in 2023 due to Huawei’s adoption of the new Kirin processors and will continue to decline year by year.

“My latest survey indicates that Qualcomm will likely start a price war as early as 4Q23 to maintain market share in the Chinese market, which will be detrimental to profits,” Kuo emphasised.

Two other potential risks for Qualcomm are that the market share of Exynos 2400 in Samsung mobile phones is higher than expected and Apple is expected to use its own modem chip starting in 2025.

Huawei and China’s Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) built an advanced 7-nanometer processor to power its latest smartphones, according to a report by market analysis firm TechInsights.

It is reported that Huawei is using a homemade advanced 7nm chipset, identified as Kirin 9000s, in its Mate 60 Pro smartphone.

The company started selling its Mate 60 Pro phone last week, without much information about the chipset inside.