Huawei also wants to be able to develop in the artificial intelligence sector. And to do this, it prefers to allocate its production resources to its latest AI chip than to its range of high-end Huawei Mate 60 smartphones.
Artificial intelligence is the fashionable economic topic. All tech players want to be able to quickly offer products and services, whether through chatbots like ChatGPT, or infrastructure equipment, the most important part of which is the semiconductor.
In this area, it is Nvidia which has won everything, and spectacularly, for a year. The manufacturer is so essential that it continues to work on the Chinese market, although it is strongly constrained by restrictions in the United States. But Huawei does not intend to let it happen on its national market.
The Ascend 910B chip before the Kirin chip
It has been impossible to offer Nvidia’s powerful H100 and A100 AI chips in China for some time due to US sanctions. On the local side, the most important production is the Ascend 910B, developed by Huawei, which makes it de facto, and despite the ability of certain Chinese entities to circumvent Washington sanctions, the semiconductor most prized by many players. Chinese AI.
Unfortunately, at present, Huawei does not have large enough production lines to satisfy demand. So, according to Reuters, the giant had to make trade-offs. Management has in fact made changes to the facilities used to manufacture both the Ascend 910B chip and the Kirin chip which equips the Mate 60 smartphones. A larger part of the production resources will thus be allocated to the former, this which will mechanically reduce the production of the second.
A hard blow for the Huawei Mate 60?
A turn taken perhaps at the worst time for the firm specializing in telecommunications. It had indeed finally regained color in the smartphone sector, after a three-year journey through the desert, thanks to the great success of its high-end Huawei Mate 60 phone, 5G compatible despite American sanctions.
Still according to the same source, Huawei hopes that this decision will only be an emergency solution. The group is in fact working at the same time to improve the productivity of its installations, an increase in productivity which would allow it to meet the demand for both AI chips and Huawei Mate 60. It remains to be seen whether will the company get there, and if so, how soon?
Source : Reuters
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