South Korean company SK Hynix is ​​looking into how its chips made it into the Huawei Mate 60 Pro

Hong Kong/Seoul
CNN
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SK Hynix, a South Korean chip maker, is investigating how two of its memory chips mysteriously ended up inside the Mate 60 Pro, a controversial smartphone launched by Huawei last week.

Hynix shares fell more than 4% on Friday after it emerged that two of its products, a 12GB LPDDR5 chip and a 512GB NAND flash memory chip, were found inside a Huawei phone by TechInsights, a Canada-based research organization. A semiconductor specialist, who disassembled the phone for analysis.

“The importance of this development is that there are limitations on what SK Hynix can ship to China,” J. Dan Hutchison, vice president of TechInsights, told CNN. “Where do these chips come from? The big question is whether any laws were violated.”

A Hynix spokesperson told CNN on Friday that it was aware of the use of its chips in a Huawei phone and had begun investigating the issue.

She said in a statement that the company “no longer deals with Huawei since the US restrictions were imposed on the company.”

“SK Hynix strictly adheres to the export restrictions imposed by the US government,” the company said.

Industry insiders said it was possible that Huawei had purchased the memory chips on the secondary market rather than directly from the manufacturer. It is also possible that Huawei has a stockpile of components built up before US export restrictions fully kick in.

TechInsights had previously revealed The phone’s “brains” were powered by the 5G Kirin 9000s chip made by Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, China’s largest chip maker, known as SMIC.

It is still examining the Mate 60 Pro and does not rule out the possibility of finding more components made by companies subject to US trade sanctions. So far, it turns out that most of the phone’s components were provided by Chinese suppliers.

Analysts said that the smartphone is a major achievement for China in light of its conflict with the United States over access to advanced technology.

This development prompted US Congressmen Mike Gallagher and Michael McCaul to do so in touch The White House – which seeks More informationn regarding the telephone – to further restrict technology export sales to Chinese companies.

Huawei and SMIC did not respond to requests for comment.

In 2019, the US government banned US companies from selling software and equipment to Huawei. It also banned international chip manufacturers that use American technology from working with the company.

That is why, four years later, the launch of the Mate 60 Pro last week shocked industry experts who did not understand how Huawei, which is headquartered in Shenzhen, would have the ability to manufacture such an advanced smartphone after the comprehensive efforts made by the United States. To restrict China’s access to foreign chip technology.