SK hynix memory was found in the flagship smartphones Huawei Mate 70, which should not be there

Canadian TechInsights experts continue to analyze the component base of the Huawei Mate 70 family of smartphones presented in the fall of this year; their next discovery was the discovery of DRAM and NAND chips manufactured by SK hynix as part of the Mate 70 Pro and Mate 70 Pro Plus, although American sanctions should theoretically limit the access of the Chinese giant to such memory chips.

Image source: Huawei Technologies

In any case, as the South China Morning Post reports, inside the Mate 70 Pro smartphone, researchers found a 12 GB DRAM chip manufactured by SK hynix, as well as a 512 GB NAND flash memory chip of the same brand. The more expensive Mate 70 Pro Plus smartphone combined a similar flash memory chip with a 16 GB DRAM chip manufactured by SK hynix.

As the authors of the study explain, the South Korean company used a 14-nm process technology in combination with EUV lithography to produce both DRAM chips. It is generally accepted that SK hynix began shipping such memory in the second half of 2021, nine months after US export restrictions on Huawei Technologies came into force. The SK hynix company strongly denies the fact of cooperation with Huawei during this period, but representatives of TechInsights emphasize that the bulk of the flagship smartphones released by Huawei last year used SK hynix memory chips. Simpler models already use Chinese-made memory: DRAM is supplied by CXMT, and NAND is produced by YMTC. For some reason, Huawei still prefers to equip its older smartphone models with memory manufactured by SK hynix.