Huawei laptop teardown shows China’s steps toward tech self-sufficiency
Credit:
FT/TechInsights
Huawei’s Qingyun laptop, tested by the FT, contains Chinese software running on the local hardware. Users can play music, edit photos, or create Word documents and spreadsheets.
Credit:
FT/TechInsights
The laptop’s Word-like application is made by Chinese software group Kingsoft and saves text files as “.wps” instead of the “.docx” format used by Microsoft. Chinese agencies like MIIT, the State Tax Administration, and Maritime Safety Administration have started to publish some government documents in the format.
But Huawei’s Xinchuang laptop is not yet fully divorced from foreign technology, showing the challenges ahead for Xi’s campaign.
Its Huawei Kirin 9006C processor was manufactured in Taiwan in 2020 ahead of tighter US export controls to the Chinese national champion, which came into effect in September of that year, according to an examination by research group TechInsights. Huawei stockpiled a mass of the 5 nanometer chips ahead of the sanctions cut-off.
The laptop’s USB controller hub comes from American company Microchip, while two memory chips come from South Korean company SK Hynix. The 512GB storage was packaged in December 2020, according to TechInsights.
SK Hynix said it strictly complies with the US export controls and has suspended transactions with Huawei since they were announced. Microchip did not respond to requests for comment.
Lin Qingyuan, a Chinese hardware expert at Bernstein, said that while Beijing’s Xinchuang policy had accelerated adoption of local tech, Washington’s sanctions were actually having a more pronounced impact.
“When companies have no choice, it creates a market for the local players, like for AI chips,” he said.
TechInsights’ analysis showed that most of the important chips were designed by Chinese groups, representing about $109 of the $182 worth of integrated circuits in the laptop.
Stacy Wegner, a senior technology analyst at TechInsights, said it was not what you would typically find in a laptop. “This was a very Chinese IC heavy laptop,” she said. “That’s for sure.”
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