SK hynix did not supply chips to Huawei: vice chairman

BIZ 18:00 September 15, 2023

SEOUL, Sept. 15 (Yonhap) -- SK hynix Vice Chairman Park Jung-ho said Friday his company stopped doing business with Huawei Technologies Co., following U.S. chip sanctions against China in 2020 and has not supplied semiconductors to the Chinese smartphone maker.

Last week, the chipmaker said it opened an internal investigation into how its memory chips ended up in a new smartphone made by Huawei, after Bloomberg News reported that the South Korean chipmaker's DRAM -- LPDDR5 -- and NAND Flash memory are used in the Chinese tech company's latest smartphone Mate 60 Pro.

"We have had absolutely no business (with Huawei)," Park told reporters before attending SK Group's event at a hotel in eastern Seoul.

"We are investigating the circumstances," he said, adding, "We need to check more closely what kind of DRAM is being used in that phone."

Last week, SK hynix said it "no longer does business with Huawei since the introduction of the U.S. restrictions against the company and with regard to the issue, we started an investigation to find out more details."

"Also, SK hynix is strictly abiding by the U.S. government's export restrictions," it added.

SK hynix stopped supplying chips to Huawei in the fall of 2020, after Washington banned the supply of semiconductors made with U.S. equipment, software and design to the Chinese company without prior approval, citing security concerns.

At that time, SK hynix was known to depend on Huawei for some 10 percent of its sales.