The Mate 70 series launch could be just around the corner, with rumors claiming that Huawei is working at lightning pace to ensure that the upcoming flagship lineup is equipped with the new Kirin 9100. The only problem is that the former Chinese giant will have to foot a substantially large bill for its top-end silicon because the latest figure doing the rounds is claiming that the chipset could be nearly as expensive as Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.
Rumor claims that the Kirin 9100 could cost in between the $157-$185 range, while the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 was estimated to be priced at $200
An estimate provided by a Weibo user with the handle ‘The factory manager is Guan’ claims that the Kirin 9100 will be extremely expensive to produce, with its unit price said to be in the 1,100-1,300 yuan range, or $157-$185, making it almost as expensive as the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, which was previously reported to cost $200. However, compared to another figure, which claimed that the Dimensity 9400 will have a unit price of $155, while the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 will cost $190, the Kirin 9100 could potentially be more expensive to produce than MediaTek’s upcoming flagship SoC.
Now, what could be the driving force that requires Huawei to pay a substantial sum for each Kirin 9100? As you might have remembered, SMIC, China’s largest semiconductor manufacturer, was earlier reported to have successfully developed the 5nm technology, which is something that Huawei was said to take advantage of on multiple occasions. Unfortunately, SMIC has to rely on older DUV machines instead of EUV equipment to mass produce 5nm wafers, resulting in increased costs, significantly higher costs, and longer delivery times.
With the U.S. banning entities like Huawei from obtaining access to TSMC’s or Samsung’s advanced manufacturing processes, the Kirin 9100 has no choice but to leverage SMIC’s existing technology. However, there is a possibility that the Kirin 9100 is not Huawei’s first 5nm chipset, and it may use the ‘N+3’ node instead, which is a more refined variant of N+2 and boasts a higher density the Kirin 9010, the chipset powering Huawei’s Pura 70 family. The Kirin 9100 is said to launch in the middle of next month, and we will find the underlying technology of the SoC, so stay tuned for more updates.
