Huawei Technologies Co Ltd (華為), one of the world’s biggest smartphone makers, has not had talks with Apple Inc about supplying it with 5G chipsets, Huawei rotating chairman Ken Hu (胡厚崑) said yesterday.
Hu made the remark at the company’s annual global analyst summit at its headquarters in Shenzhen, China.
His comment come after Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei (任正非) told CNBC that the company was “open” to selling its 5G chips to Apple.
“We have not had discussions with Apple on this issue,” Hu said, reiterating that Huawei does not plan to become a chipset vendor at this time.
He also said he looked forward to Apple’s competition in the 5G market.
Hu said Huawei had secured 40 commercial contracts to build 5G telecommunications infrastructure as at the end of last month, up from a previously disclosed tally of more than 30.
Huawei’s outlook has come under a cloud over the past year, with the US voicing concerns that its equipment could be used by the Chinese government for espionage.
Huawei is also the world’s largest telecommunications equipment maker.
Its inhouse semiconductor arm, HiSilicon (海思半導體), designs chipsets that are used in its products.
Huawei in January launched its 5G modem Balong 5000, which it said is the industry’s most powerful, as well as a 5G base station chipset named Tiangang.
The company last month reported a 25 percent rise in net profit to 59.3 billion yuan (US$9 billion) last year, even as revenue from its network equipment business fell 1.3 percent to 294 billion yuan due to telecommunications industry investment cycles.
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