Huawei's chipset production lines are to close in September 2020

Huawei is one of a very few smartphone OEMs that also develops the processors for (most of) the same devices. However, unlike Samsung, it has had to farm the actual making of these chipsets out to companies such as TSMC. These companies have announced that they will comply with punitive trade regulations that prevent the electronics giant from using US technologies. It now seems these measures have started to show their effects.

Normal supply-side Huawei partners have found themselves barred from fulfilling orders dated May 15, 2020 or later, and from sending shipments dated September 14, 2020 or later. Therefore, Yu Chengdong, (also known as Richard Yu) has publicly acknowledged that chipset finishing within the company's dedicated HiSilicon facilities cannot proceed beyond September 15, 2020.

Therefore, it is only a matter of time before the company runs out of new Kirin processors to incorporate into phones. The company had had plans to implement its own foundry so as to be immune to an eventuality like this; however, according to the latest reports, this independent capability has not materialized.

It is not clear how the company will proceed in terms of producing new mobile devices at this point. It is possible that it will turn to MediaTek's emerging Dimensity series of platforms instead, as it does for some of its mid-level devices at present.