Huawei used years-old Hynix memory tech in Mate 60 phones

Huawei Technologies Co.’s controversial Mate 60 phones use SK Hynix Inc. memory that has been available for years, TechInsights found after disassembling multiple devices.

The particular Hynix modules have been available since at least 2021, when TechInsights first came across them in a Lenovo Group Ltd. handset. Huawei also used the memory in its Mate X3 and P60 Pro devices earlier this year, the researchers said.

Huawei’s latest phones have ignited celebration in China and consternation in the US, thanks to their advanced made-in-China processor. Icheon-based Hynix was drawn into the debate when its components were identified in a TechInsights teardown of the Mate 60 Pro for Bloomberg News.

Hynix said it hasn’t done business with Huawei since US sanctions were imposed on the Shenzhen-based company and is looking into the matter.

Washington officials have also started a probe into the Mate 60 Pro and its processor. Republican lawmakers on Thursday pressed the Biden administration to completely cut off Huawei and its chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., from American suppliers, arguing that Huawei’s device demonstrates the ineffectiveness of the sanctions imposed on those firms so far.