A week ago, the Huawei Mate 60 Pro was discovered to contain one 12GB LPDDR5 RAM memory chip and a 512GB NAND flash memory chip.
This appeared to violate US export regulations that prohibit foundries using US technology from supplying chips to Huawei without a license. So either SK Hynix, a foundry, or Huawei, They would be accused of violating US sanctions.
However, South Korean company SK Hynix said it had not done business with Huawei since chip sanctions against the Chinese manufacturer began in 2020. The chipmaker said it was investigating the matter, and Park Jung-ho, vice president of the company, said:
We had absolutely no business (with Huawei). We are investigating the circumstances.
Huawei’s new smartphone is a well-made product… and we need to take a closer look at what type of DRAM is used in this phone.
The company itself announced this in a statement “We have stopped doing business with Huawei since US restrictions were introduced against the company. We have launched an investigation into this issue to find out more details.” In addition, SK Hynix strictly adheres to US government export restrictions.
When the ban began, Huawei was responsible for 10% of SK Hynix’s sales.
Bloomberg claims that Huawei received the memory chips used in the Mate 60 Pro before the sanctions began. TechInsights found this out The SK Hynix RAM and flash memory chips used in the Mate 60 Pro came from Huawei stocks.
A teardown video of the Mate 60 Pro revealed that the SK Hynix NAND flash memory chip shown in the footage has 512GB of UFS 3.1 storage and the model number is UD310. This component was announced by SK Hynix in 2020, before US export rules were expanded to prevent next-generation chips from getting into Huawei’s hands.
As for the SK Hynix 12GB LPDDR5 RAM chip, it looks like Huawei happens to have a fairly large inventory of these chips available.
But the big question is How many more phones can Huawei make with the amount of memory chips it has stashed away in some drawer? Huawei used the same SK Hynix RAM and NAND chips in two other phones this year, the foldable Mate X3 and the flagship P60 series.
Even though Huawei used legacy stock to equip the Mate 60 Pro with SK Hynix’s RAM and NAND flash chips, it remains unclear how Huawei and SMIC will produce the new 7nm Kirin 9000S 5G chipset in light of US sanctions could.