The impact of this production shift on Huawei's smartphone business is unclear. Despite the reported production slowdown, Huawei topped China's smartphone sales in the first two weeks of the year, driven by the release of its Mate 60 Pro 5G smartphone. However, customers have reported long waiting times for pre-orders of Mate 60 phones to be fulfilled.
Key takeaways:
- Huawei, one of the largest phone manufacturers globally, is reportedly prioritizing the production of AI chips and slowing down the production of chips for its latest Mate 60 phones.
- The company uses one manufacturing plant to produce both its Ascend AI chips and the Kirin chips, which has been experiencing low production.
- Following the US's AI chip restrictions to China in October 2023, Chinese AI companies have been struggling to source necessary chip components for their AI products, leading to a search for domestic chip alternatives.
- Despite production changes, Huawei topped China's smartphone sales in the first two weeks of the year, driven by the release of its Mate 60 Pro 5G smartphone, though customers have reported long waiting times for pre-orders.