Huawei overtakes Qualcomm as China's top player in chips

Huawei’s HiSilicon chip unit overtook Qualcomm as the biggest seller of semiconductors in the first quarter of 2020 for the first time ever.

According to CNBC, Huawei has focused more on China since being blacklisted by the US government, increasing both its smartphone market share and sales of semiconductor chips in the Asian giant.

HiSilicon designs chips under the Kirin brand which are manufactured by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and used in Huawei’s smartphones.

The Huawei unit shipped 22.21m smartphone processors in the first quarter of 2020 according to a new report by China-based CINNO Research.

It also managed to boost its share of the market to 43.9% from 24.3% in the comparable year ago quarter.

In the first three months of 2020, its smartphone shipments rose 6% from 2019, according to a report from Counterpoint Research published Wednesday.

CINNO Research said Qualcomm’s market share fell to 32.8% in the March quarter, from 48.1% in the same period last year.