American tech companies are getting the go-ahead to resume business with Chinese smartphone giant Huawei Technologies Co., but it may be too late: It is now building smartphones without U.S. chips.
Huawei’s latest phone, which it unveiled in September—the Mate 30 with a curved display, telephone and wide-angle cameras that competes with Apple Inc.’s iPhone 11—contained no U.S. parts, according to an analysis by UBS and Fomalhaut Techno Solutions, a Japanese technology lab that took the device apart to inspect its insides.
In May, the Trump administration banned U.S. shipments to Huawei as trade tensions with Beijing escalated. That move stopped companies like Qualcomm Inc. and Intel Corp. from exporting chips to the company, though some shipments of parts resumed over the summer after companies determined they weren’t affected by the ban.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, whose department oversees export licenses, last month said U.S. chip makers were being granted licenses to resume some other deliveries. The department has received nearly 300 license applications, he said.
Meanwhile, Huawei has made significant strides in shedding its dependence on U.S. parts.
Huawei long relied on suppliers like Qorvo Inc., the North Carolina maker of chips that are used to connect smartphones with cell towers, and Skyworks Solutions Inc., a Woburn, Mass.-based company that makes similar chips. It also used parts from Broadcom Inc., the San Jose-based maker of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi chips, and Cirrus Logic Inc., an Austin, Texas-based company that makes chips for producing sound.
Kicking the Habit
Since Washington restricted U.S. technology in Huawei's smartphones, the Chinese telecom giant added non-U.S. suppliers and replaced some American components with ones from other places
The antenna switch that changes between cellular frequencies to keep you connected as you move around.
Power management chips that coordinate power usage to maximize battery life.
pre-ban phones*
Post-ban phones†
pre-ban phones*
Post-ban phones†
ON Semi-
conductor
MediaTek
Qorvo
Murata
Taiwan
U.S.
Japan
U.S.
HiSilicon
HiSilicon
Qorvo
Skyworks
China
China
U.S.
U.S.
HiSilicon
HiSilicon
China
China
WiFi and Bluetooth chips that handle connections to the internet and wireless devices like headphones.
Power amplifiers that convert your voice and data into radio signals beamed to cell towers.
pre-ban phones*
Post-ban phones†
Broadcom
HiSilicon
U.S.
China
pre-ban phones*
Post-ban phones†
HiSilicon
Qorvo
HiSilicon
China
U.S.
China
Qorvo
Skyworks
Audio amplifiers that turn electrical signals into audio you can hear.
U.S.
U.S.
Skyworks
pre-ban phones*
Post-ban phones†
U.S.
Cirrus Logic
NXP
Qualcomm
U.S.
Netherlands
U.S.
Power management chips that coordinate power usage to maximize battery life.
The antenna switch that changes between cellular frequencies to keep you connected as you move around.
pre-ban phones*
pre-ban phones*
ON Semiconductor
Qorvo
U.S.
U.S.
HiSilicon
Skyworks
China
U.S.
HiSilicon
Post-ban phones†
China
MediaTek
Taiwan
Post-ban phones†
HiSilicon
Murata
China
Japan
Qorvo
U.S.
WiFi and Bluetooth chips that handle connections to the internet and wireless devices like headphones.
HiSilicon
China
pre-ban phones*
Broadcom
Power amplifiers that convert your voice and data into radio signals beamed to cell towers.
U.S.
HiSilicon
China
pre-ban phones*
Qorvo
Post-ban phones†
U.S.
HiSilicon
China
Skyworks
U.S.
Post-ban phones†
Audio amplifiers that turn electrical signals into audio you can hear.
HiSilicon
China
pre-ban phones*
Qorvo
Cirrus Logic
U.S.
U.S.
Skyworks
Post-ban phones†
U.S.
NXP
Qualcomm
Netherlands
U.S.
The antenna switch that changes between cellular frequencies to keep you connected as you move around.
Power management chips that coordinate power usage to maximize battery life.
pre-ban phones*
Post-ban phones†
pre-ban phones*
Post-ban phones†
ON Semi-
conductor
MediaTek
Qorvo
Murata
Taiwan
U.S.
Japan
U.S.
HiSilicon
HiSilicon
Skyworks
Qorvo
China
China
U.S.
U.S.
HiSilicon
HiSilicon
China
China
WiFi and Bluetooth chips that handle connections to the internet and wireless devices like headphones.
Power amplifiers that convert your voice and data into radio signals beamed to cell towers.
pre-ban phones*
Post-ban phones†
Broadcom
HiSilicon
U.S.
China
pre-ban phones*
Post-ban phones†
HiSilicon
Qorvo
HiSilicon
China
U.S.
China
Qorvo
Skyworks
Audio amplifiers that turn electrical signals into audio you can hear.
U.S.
U.S.
Skyworks
pre-ban phones*
Post-ban phones†
U.S.
Cirrus Logic
NXP
Qualcomm
U.S.
Netherlands
U.S.
Power management chips that coordinate power usage to maximize battery life.
pre-ban phones*
Post-ban phones†
ON Semi-
conductor
MediaTek
Taiwan
U.S.
HiSilicon
HiSilicon
China
China
WiFi and Bluetooth chips that handle connections to the internet and wireless devices like headphones.
pre-ban phones*
Post-ban phones†
Broadcom
HiSilicon
U.S.
China
HiSilicon
China
Audio amplifiers that turn electrical signals into audio you can hear.
pre-ban phones*
Post-ban phones†
Cirrus Logic
NXP
U.S.
Netherlands
The antenna switch that changes between cellular frequencies to keep you connected as you move around.
pre-ban phones*
Post-ban phones†
Qorvo
Murata
U.S.
Japan
Skyworks
Qorvo
U.S.
U.S.
HiSilicon
HiSilicon
China
China
Power amplifiers that convert your voice and data into radio signals beamed to cell towers.
pre-ban phones*
Post-ban phones†
Qorvo
HiSilicon
U.S.
China
Qorvo
Skyworks
U.S.
U.S.
Skyworks
U.S.
Qualcomm
U.S.
*Pre-ban phones refers to Huawei’s P10 Plus, P30 Pro and Mate 20 phones released before the U.S. ban. †Post-ban phones refer to the Mate 20X 5G, Y9 Prime, Mate 30 released after the U.S. ban. Note: HiSilicon is a Huawei subsidiary.
Sources: UBS, Fomalhaut Techno Solutions, iFixit
While Huawei hasn’t stopped using American chips entirely, it has reduced its reliance on U.S. suppliers or eliminated U.S. chips in phones launched since May, including the company’s Y9 Prime and Mate smartphones, according to Fomalhaut’s teardown analysis. Similar inspections by iFixit and Tech Insights Inc., two other firms that take apart phones to inspect components, have come to similar conclusions.
On the Mate 30, audio chips supplied in older phones were from Cirrus Logic. In the newer Mate 30 models, chips came were provided by NXP Semiconductors NV, a Dutch chip maker, according to Fomalhaut. Power amplifiers provided by Qorvo or Skyworks were replaced with chips from HiSilicon, Huawei’s in-house chip design firm, the teardown analysis showed.
“When Huawei came out with this high-end phone—and this is its flagship—with no U.S. content, that made a pretty big statement,” said Christopher Rolland, a semiconductor analyst at Susquehanna International Group. He said that in recent meetings, Huawei executives told him that the company was moving away from American parts, but it was still surprising how quickly it happened.
A Huawei spokesman said it is the company’s “clear preference to continue to integrate and buy components from U.S. supply partners. If that proves impossible because of the decisions of the U.S. government, we will have no choice but to find alternative supply from non-U.S. sources.”
The Shenzhen-based manufacturer has many phone models and the technology inside can vary depending on where a handset is being sold. Atif Malik, a Citigroup Inc. semiconductor analyst, said in a recent note there was “growing China domestic substitution risk” for U.S. companies, especially in lower-priced phones.
The U.S. has long considered Huawei telecommunications equipment a security threat, citing fears that its gear could be used to spy on Americans—something the company has said it wouldn’t do. Its smartphones, hugely popular in Europe and China, are effectively unavailable in the U.S. More recently, the company has become a bargaining chip in the U.S.-China trade war, with Beijing insisting on relief for Huawei as a condition for a trade deal.
Huawei CEO: ‘We Can Survive Without the U.S.’
Huawei executives say they anticipated the blacklisting after years of U.S. pressure on the company and last year they began stockpiling spare parts. In other cases, the phone maker identified non-U.S. suppliers or started working on its own replacement parts, according to Huawei executives.
Huawei has said it bought $11 billion of U.S. technology last year, though not all of it was subjected to export restrictions, a Huawei spokesman said.
Several U.S. chip makers, like Qorvo, Skyworks, and Broadcom, this year warned of earnings hits because of the partial U.S. export ban.
Huawei’s drive to shake off its dependence on U.S. parts goes beyond smartphones. John Suffolk, the company’s top cybersecurity official, said in an interview that the company is now capable of producing—without U.S. components—the 5G base stations that are a key part of the infrastructure needed for the high-speed network.
“All of our 5G is now America-free,” Mr. Suffolk said. “We would like to continue using American components,” he said. “It’s good for American industry. It’s good for Huawei. That has been taken out of our hands.”
Huawei began testing these base stations over the summer, a spokesman said. Though its ability to produce them is still limited to about 5,000 a month, the spokesman said the figure should increase to about 125,000 a month next year.
“Independence of U.S. supply indicates that the strategies of the U.S. in trying to isolate Huawei are not working,” said Handel Jones, president of consulting firm International Business Strategies Inc.
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Do you think Huawei phones will perform at the same capacity without American technology? Join the conversation below.
Despite this progress, Huawei still has one big supply-chain vulnerability. Its smartphones run on the Google Android operating system and make use of a number of Google-made apps. While Android is open source and can be used freely, the apps—including YouTube, Google Maps and the Play app store—aren’t. At its launch in September, the Mate 30 was Huawei’s first major phone to launch without Google’s proprietary apps. Google declined to comment.
The Chinese company’s booming smartphone business could suffer—especially in overseas markets—if it doesn’t regain access to the apps, analysts have said. Huawei has unveiled a self-developed operating system, called HarmonyOS, to replace Android. But the operating system wasn’t originally designed for smartphones and Huawei executives have said they would prefer to stick with Android.
Write to Asa Fitch at asa.fitch@wsj.com and Dan Strumpf at daniel.strumpf@wsj.com
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