Take a look at this...
Am sure you recognize the name on the far right column, no? What you see is a shot of a monitor, not a computer screenshot.
Every wafer virtually cross my virtual desk. A batch of wafers is called a 'lot'. Each lot have a final destination, in this case, these wafers are scheduled for Huawei. Each client can have a specific flow and can be as specific as from wafer start to ship. That is essentially what a contract fab does -- make wafers for various clients based on their recipes. A client can buy generic wafers and request custom test programs, in this case, these wafers were tested under a custom Huawei flow. Remember, every wafer virtually cross my virtual desk. I have colleagues under my supervision who executes certain processes so I do not have to work on every wafer, but essentially, every wafer virtually cross my virtual desk.
Let us take the average cell phone from any maker. Every component inside that cell phone have a one-yr supply chain built in. Every component mean literally exactly that. Down to the solder on the PCB. It mean that there is a supplier that is contracted to the cell phone maker for one yr. The contract can be renewed or even (re)negotiated for more than one yr. But usually, for the cell phone maker, at least one yr is preferred to ensure production and eventual market stability. The same idea applies to washing machines, farm tractors, cars, and so on.
What would happen if I -- a cog in a corporate machine -- decide to scrap those wafers destined for Huawei? The scrap decision could be technically legitimate, as in reviewing the test data, each wafer have enough dies that failed thresholds, so after a certain percentage of 'bad' dies, Huawei authorizes full wafer discard. All clients do this. There is no financially justifiable reason to work on a wafer that is below %50 good dies. An obsolete product may justify but not currently available products. NASA paid premiums on obsolete products because NASA want only matured 'chips' to go into space, so as a side note, NASA uses tech that are about 5 yrs old. Same for the European Space Agency and CNSA. You can bet your life on it because Chinese astronauts did.
But what if I decide to scrap those Huawei wafers because I do not like China? Huawei's supply chains are flexible enough to cover these wafers without disrupting production flow. Huawei already authorized me to scrap wafers based on certain criteria. Now extrapolate this up to the corporate level, meaning some, not all, US companies in Huawei's supply chains have to obey laws that forbid dealing business with Huawei and the laws says 'effectively immediately'. Now extrapolate this up to the national level, meaning all US companies, all European companies under their respective laws, and all Asian companies under their respective laws.
You can bet your life that Huawei's overseas business
WILL be crippled. Much, not just many, of Huawei's internal Chinese supply chains overall
ALL of Huawei's product range are highly dependent on foreign companies as OEMs, so China's internal market will not be able to sustain Huawei without governmental assistance.
Behind Huawei's tough talk exterior and the Chinese government's aggressive bluster are terrified executives, and I do mean
TERRIFIED. Huawei is a national asset. The Orange One (Trump) was not what China expected. Not what anyone expected. That one-yr supply chain is like a massive fully loaded tanker ship that takes klicks to make turns and to stop. Huawei cannot simply turn to alternate vendors and expect all of them to abandon their current obligations just to work for Huawei. Not even Chinese companies can do that because they too, have their own one-yr supply chain to steer.
You do not have to believe everything I said above. You can say the image is Photoshop-ed and I do not care one bit. I am in the industry. You are not. You and most of your pals on this forum do not know what you are talking about. Your China is far more vulnerable than you think. Far more vulnerable than US.
