Huawei's Honor Spinoff Unveils 5G Smartphones With Intel, Nvidia Chips

(Bloomberg) -- Huawei Technologies Co.’s smartphone spinoff unveiled new devices Friday featuring chips from Intel Corp., MediaTek Inc. and Nvidia Corp., saying it reached agreements with its global partners to resume supplies cut off by U.S. sanctions on its former parent.

Most of the suppliers of Honor Device Co., the budget phone brand sold by Huawei last November, have resumed doing business with the newly created company, Honor’s chief executive George Zhao said. There’s no restriction when choosing component and software suppliers, said Zhao, adding that it’s in talks with other firms including Qualcomm Inc., Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Micron Technology Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co.

Huawei had hived off Honor to a Chinese government-backed consortium last year as the technology giant grappled with Trump administration sanctions that cut off its supply of mobile chipsets. The Shenzhen-based company is said to have safeguarded its core telecom equipment business by stockpiling critical components to continue supplying its home country’s 5G rollout but it lacks inventory for its smartphone business, which was once larger than Samsung’s.

Honor’s latest smartphones featuring fifth-generation wireless capability use mobile chips developed by Taiwanese chipmaker MediaTek, the company announced on Friday. Its new laptop is equipped with Intel’s central processing units and a graphic processor made by Nvidia.

“Based on global consumer needs, Honor has the flexibility and independence to choose the best solutions for its global supply chain,” the company said in a statement announcing its newest line-up. “Honor has already confirmed partnerships with leading suppliers such as AMD, Intel, MediaTek, Micron Technology, Microsoft, Qualcomm, Samsung, SK Hynix and Sony.”

A MediaTek spokesman didn’t immediately reply to questions about whether it had entered into an agreement with Honor. Intel, Nvidia and Qualcomm didn’t immediately respond to emails from Bloomberg News seeking comments.

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