Huawei may return to the chip business, which it once designed in-house through its subsidiary HiSilicon and, often, TSMC’s foundries. The past USA ban has changed everything, and HiSilicon almost doesn’t make any more chips.
In fact, Huawei would be ready to start mass production of chips made with a 12 and 14 nanometer production process. The return to activity is good, the fact that these are not particularly advanced chips is less good. TSMC, which produces chips for Qualcomm and Apple, is already working on 4 nanometers, the technology Huawei would be working on today that was advanced 6 or 7 years ago.
A 12 or 14 nanometer chip is not expendable on modern top of the range, but to tell the truth, Huawei has no problem finding chips for its phones.
For at least two reasons. The first would be to keep HiSilicon, a company that designs chips that Huawei holds control of, alive. The second is that if it is true that 12 or 14-nanometer chips in 2023 are good, perhaps, for some very cheap smartphones it is also true that for certain applications they are still fine for smart appliances or some automotive applications.
Meanwhile for the wearables on which Huawei continues to be committed. By doing so, Huawei would keep HiSilicon alive and save compared to orders from an external supplier, and at a time when numbers have contracted heavily due to sales that are no longer those of the golden age, every penny saved is precious. Who knows that after many rumors Huawei will finally not be able to return to the chip market, and who knows that part of the merit may not be due to the recent patent movements with Oppo and Samsung .