Huawei Refutes Rumored Return of Self-Developed Kirin Chipsets in 2023

News emerged in recent days that Huawei’s Kirin chipsets, which have been stalled due to sanctions imposed by the US Department of Commerce, may stage a comeback next year. Given existing restrictions, however, the new chips are likely to be positioned as mid-end. Regarding the matter, Huawei responded on November 7, stating that the reports are untrue.

On November 6, a prominent Chinese digital blogger posted on Chinese social media, claiming that Huawei engineers had disclosed to him that Kirin chips will return in 2023, and that progress has been fairly smooth. Tape-out has been achieved, and the chips are now waiting for final implementation. On the same day, another digital blogger who has been paying close attention to Huawei also said that Huawei Kirin chips are back. Versions with 14nm processing capabilities are expected to be released next year, while chips using stacking technology will be delayed. However, the blogger also said that it is very unlikely for 5G high-end chips to return for the time being.

There is no precise information on the specifications of Kirin chips now developed by Huawei, but Richard Yu, Executive Director, CEO of the Consumer BG, CEO of the Intelligent Automotive Solution BU, has mentioned more than once that Huawei will return “to the throne” in 2023, which also increases the likelihood of Kirin chips’ return next year.

After chip supply was cut off, Huawei not only established an industry investment chain via Hubble, but also developed the Huawei Da Vinci AI Chip Architecture based on RISC-V, chip stacking technology, and cooperated in the R&D of 5G RF chips, optical chips, and more. The tech giant has been striving to promote the development of China’s chip industry chain.

A new smartphone named the Huawei Nova 10z was recently released on the firm’s online shopping platform. This device is equipped with a Kirin 710A processor manufactured by SMIC and adopting 14nm processing technology, and which can be regarded as a reduced-frequency version of the Kirin 710 released previously.

Huawei had not released a new high-end flagship smartphone for two years because it could not produce its own chips. After being sanctioned, its last two high-end smartphone models equipped with Kirin chips are the Mate 40 series and the Mate X2, while the Mate series is Huawei’s flagship business series. Since then, Huawei has released the P50 series and foldable smartphone Pocket with Snapdragon 4G chips specially supplied by Qualcomm. The Mate 50 series, Pocket S foldable smartphone released recently mainly adopt the 4G version of Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ chips and Snapdragon 778G.

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