Collaboration with Tesla supplier STMicro also set to aid self-driving goals
TAIPEI -- Huawei Technologies is working with French-Italian chipmaker STMicroelectronics to co-design mobile and automotive-related chips as it seeks to shield itself from Washington's possible tightening of export restrictions on the Chinese company, two sources familiar with the matter told the Nikkei Asian Review.
...
Partnering with STMicro on some advanced chips, rather than designing them mainly in-house and ordering their production directly from contract chipmakers, could help shield Huawei from a U.S. crackdown, the sources explained. The collaboration also enables Huawei to secure access to the latest software needed for developing advanced chips. This software is mainly provided by two U.S. companies, Synopsys and Cadence Design Systems, and Huawei rotating Chairman Eric Xu admitted last summer that his company could not get the latest support from these providers because of the trade blacklist.
...
Apart from possible insurance against any U.S. moves, the collaboration with STMicro is also in line with the Chinese company's key corporate strategy of expanding its development in connected cars. The company is making a big push in autonomous driving to beat its foreign and domestic rivals, Nikkei reported earlier.
Partnering with STMicro, a leading automotive semiconductor provider to Tesla and BMW, could catapult Huawei into the top tier of players in autonomous driving, the next key battleground for tech companies, sources said.
Among the first joint development projects is mobile-related chips for Huawei's Honor line of smartphones, one of the people briefed on the matter said. The budget Honor brand is a sales booster for Huawei, shipping 64 million units last year, out of the company's total 240 million units.
...
