No evidence Huawei can produce advanced phone chips at scale: US

SAN FRANCISCO: US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo has said that there is no evidence to suggest that Chinese conglomerate Huawei can produce smartphones with advanced semiconductors at scale, the media reported.

According to TechCrunch, the claim comes two months after a tech research firm predicted Huawei would return to the 5G smartphone sector by the end of the year.

However, the reports were later reassured by Huawei's launch of the Mate 60 Pro smartphone in late August.

The model comes powered by a 7nm system-on-chip (SoC), which was created by Huawei's chip division HiSilicon and made by China's largest chip manufacturer SMIC, according to a device teardown by analysis TechInsights.

"Discovering a Kirin chip using SMIC’s 7nm (N+2) foundry process in the new Huawei Mate 60 Pro smartphone demonstrates the technical progress China’s semiconductor industry has been able to make without EUV lithography tools," Dan Hutcheson, vice chair of TechInsights, was quoted as saying.

Moreover, during a US House hearing, Raimondo said that "we don’t have any evidence that they can manufacture seven-nanometer at scale".

Further, the report mentioned that invoking national security concerns, the US administration included Huawei to a list of entities in 2019 that prevented it from obtaining high-end chipmaking equipment from the country.

The Chinese giant has been forced to diversify its revenue streams into less well-known industries like IoT and automotive as a result of the sanctions decimating its handset sector.

Meanwhile, Huawei is likely to enter the mid-range 5G market by launching a new smartphone soon, as the company shrugs off US sanctions and moves forward.

According to IT Times, Huawei is expected to launch a 5G version of its mid-ranged Nova smartphone in the next one-two months.