It is a terrible day for Apple and Qualcomm, as both companies lost significantly in share price and market value following news that China banned the use of iPhones among government employees. While the San Diego chipset maker was effected by the ban, its share price down was also due to a report doing the rounds that Huawei will exclusively switch to Kirin SoCs in 2024, leading to up a loss of 60 million silicon orders for Qualcomm, translating into revenue that is reduced by the billions.
Qualcomm’s share price plunged 7.2 percent over a series of negative news, making it the company’s worst decline in a month
With Apple’s shares dropping by as much as 5.1 percent, leading to a loss of $212 billion in market value, Bloomberg reports that Qualcomm went through a similar scarring, with its share dropping by 7.2 percent, lowering to $106.4 on Thursday. With SMIC successfully producing the Kirin 9000S for Huawei’s recently announced Mate 60 Pro 5G, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported that Qualcomm would be battling in a chipset price war, where it would have to offer several models at a competitive price while sacrificing profits.
Despite the sanctions placed on Huawei by the U.S. in 2019, the former Chinese smartphone giant was estimated to have purchased between 40-42 million Qualcomm chipsets this year. China is the world’s largest smartphone market by volume, and losing millions in orders for 2024 in a single region is a recipe for disaster. While Qualcomm can still rely on its 5G modem sales, that might not be sufficient to keep it afloat, not when Apple is pursuing a custom modem design, which will reportedly debut in 2025.
The Kirin 9000S may not hold a candle to the performance and power efficiency of the upcoming Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, but its existence has little to do with directly competing with the flagship SoCs and more to do with reducing reliance on U.S. technology. Huawei has proven that it can launch future Kirin silicon with the sanctions in place thanks to SMIC, and the news has not sat well with U.S. government officials who are reportedly exploring the idea of enforcing stricter trading limitations on both Chinese firms.
As the tensions continue mounting between the U.S. and China, both Apple and Qualcomm have been caught in the crosshairs, with little chance of a resolution between the two countries.
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