Huawei Forced To Slow Down Mate Production 60 Due To AI Chip Scarcity

Huawei was forced to slow down the production of premium Mate 60 phones (photo: dock. huawei)

JAKARTA - Huawei was forced to slow down production of its premium Mate 60 phones due to the required scarcity of artificial intelligence (AI) chips. This situation is due to soaring demand for Huawei's AI chips, but their manufacturing capabilities are limited.

Huawei uses one production facility to produce both AI Ascend chips and Kirin chips used in its phones. However, production results are hampered due to low yield levels, which are indicators of low production quality.

Although Huawei is China's largest mobile phone supplier for the first time in more than three years, the slowdown in Mate 60 marks the challenges facing the company. Huawei declined to comment on the matter.

This condition also shows the impact of US restrictions on sales of AI chips on China. This leads to an increase in domestic demand for Huawei Ascend chips, which are considered China's most competitive non-Nvidia AI chips.

Huawei is trying to increase the level of chip yields and hopes this situation is only temporary. However, their success in producing advanced chips has been in the spotlight after they launched the Mate 60 series with Chinese-made chips capable of achieving 5G telecommunications speeds.

Even so, the lack of Mate 60 stock has left buyers complaining about a long waiting time. In addition to mobile phones, other products from Huawei are affected by the production bottleneck including the Ascend-enhanced MDC 810 computing unit, which is used in advanced driver assistance systems. This has led Chinese car manufacturers to delay deliveries of their flagship models.