Huawei Kirin 990/980 supply at stake since TSMC 7nm is already at full capacity

Ever since the Huawei US ban has been extended, the company is in the news every day with new developments. One of the latest reports suggests the supplies for 5nm chips by TSMC remain unaffected as the orders were placed before the new sanction.

Huawei’s upcoming high-end smartphones, possibly called Mate 40 series is rumored to be powered by a 5nm chipset. The chip in question has been long thought to be called Kirin 1020 but a new rumor from earlier today suggests it will be known as Kirin 1000, following the name of its predecessor Kirin 990.

Having said that, this 5nm chipset is being manufactured by TSMC, which is the only company to have the tech for mass production. The Taiwanese chipmaker is also making Apple’s A14 5nm chipset slated to debut on iPhone 12 series.

But when TSMC was asked to drop business with Huawei by the US government, news started emerging that the upcoming Mate 40 series will be affected due to lack of 5nm Kirin 1020 (or 1000). However, a new report says otherwise.

The sanction by the US is only applicable for future orders from September. Since the orders for the 5nm chips were placed earlier, TSMC will supply it to Huawei as planned before the sanction goes live.

Earlier reports suggested Huawei placed orders for 5nm and 7nm chips. However, this latest one says they were actually for 5nm mobile chip for Mate 40 series and 12nm chips for 5G bases stations. That is because TSMC’s 7nm production line is currently at 100%, whereas their 5nm line is said to be only at 50%.

This means Huawei currently has no one to manufacture its 7nm Kirin 980 and Kirin 990 chipsets. This could be the reason why the company has increased its orders for MediaTek chips by a whopping 300%.

(Via)

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