This is definitely noteworthy. We can dig a bit on this.
As we can see from Techinsights image here:
Since last year's Pura P60 (end of March, 2023), HW uses SK's LPDDR5x that started mass production in . Taking into account the time needed to assemble and stock up the P60, HW must have been one of the first customers. Amazing!
On the other hand, SK officially stated that . They opened an internal investigation last year...but since then no more news come out on this topic. Of course we can be confident they fully clarified with US, but for some reason US administration choose not to leak to MSM as they usually do. And MSM never wrote a line again on this topic, so we can assume they received some specific instruction to remain silent on this....
Of course we don't know what happened, it could have been a "hidden" wafer lot delivery that went under the radar, like the recently TSMC one for the HW AI chip, but the fact that the newest Mate 70 still uses the same SK LPDDR5X memory, this rises more questions.
Not only this. The die marking on the DRAM of the MAte 70 is different from the one originally supplied to P60....so it seems is a new production lot.
It would be possible that SK is actively supplying HW, against US will?
To try to answer this question we first have to check where the DRAM supplied to HW is produced?
SK Hynix : Wuxi (DRAM), Dalian (NAND flash), and Chongqing (packaging).
And in May this year to a Chinese state-owned enterprise
So now SK's Wuxi DRAM fab is half owned by a Chinese SOE. Does this rise some red flag? Well....it should.
I didn't find confirmation that Wuxi fab manufacturers LPDDR5X, but if this is the case, we have a clue on why HW keeps getting SK DRAM...
But what is really amazing to me, if this is the case and it will be confirmed, is that US administration decided to look away, to turn their heads on this. It is like rising the white flag! They know they can't do anything about it and if the news comes out they lose their face and they would be humiliated (this would also explain why western media was not allowed to talk about it).
Of course this is just a speculation, but if SK Wuxi fab really produces LPDDR5X DRAM, then, now that is almost 50% owned by a Chinese state owned company, it could eventually supply HW in the face of US.
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