Huawei changes the leadership of the HiSilicon processor division - what does it mean
Huawei has made personnel changes in its internal chip development unit, HiSilicon. According to SCMP, the new head of HiSilicon is Jeffery Gao, who previously headed the company's Shanghai office. He replaced Eric Xu, who has been leading HiSilicon since 2008 and is currently serving as Huawei's rotating chairman until the end of September.
Gao joined Huawei in 2012, worked on networking solutions, and since 2019 has been leading the company's optoelectronics business. He is now also the official legal representative of HiSilicon, a role previously held by Xu.
Huawei has not provided any official comment on the reasons for the changes. According to SCMP, it could be part of a rotational management system or part of a deeper restructuring of the company's semiconductor business. But it clearly indicates that the company is returning to active development of its own processors. US sanctions are having less and less impact.
A little history, a little politics
HiSilicon is a manufacturer of Kirin processors for Huawei smartphones and Ascend chips for AI and data centres, and is a structural unit of Huawei. Huawei, in turn, is closely linked to the Chinese authorities and actively participates in the country's political affairs. Huawei has repeatedly violated international restrictions and supplied equipment to Iran (2018) and the Crimean peninsula temporarily occupied by Russia. The most recent scandal occurred in 2016 and involved the importation of base station equipment to the occupied Ukrainian territories that intercepts user traffic for access by the FSB and other special services. Prior to the occupation, Ukrainian mobile operators used mostly Ericsson and Nokia equipment, but European manufacturers refused to do so and the occupiers had to completely change the equipment of the base stations. The company's anti-Western stance is not pure business and money-making, but a conscious choice - Huawei's Ukrainian office hired pro-Russian propagandist Olena Dyachenko, and Taiwan is displayed as an independent state or part of China, depending on which language you type it in the search.
After Donald Trump imposed sanctions on Huawei, the company laid off some employees and downsized its division. After a long period of silence, Huawei started developing the unit again in 2023. According to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), the Chinese government has invested about $30 billion in Huawei, and it is currently building the world's largest processor manufacturing infrastructure. Huawei alone will have more than half of the world's old-style chip production capacity (up to 7 nm). When China manages to capture more modern production processes, Huawei will be able to strongly push the American semiconductor giants.
Source: www.scmp.com
