Reports from Light Reading stated that Taiwan MediaTek recently surpassed Qualcomm to become the world’s largest supplier of smartphone chips. Many analysts believe that this situation is partly due to the US government’s actions against China’s Huawei.

Research and consulting firm Omdia wrote in a recent report: “After the US government imposed a Huawei ban, Huawei began to use MediaTek chips. As leading brands began to use MediaTek technology, other brands followed closely behind, which made their supply chain is more diversified. The US technology ban highlights the need for companies to consider the potential political impact on existing supplier relationships.”

Other analysis companies also agree with this view.

“MediaTek will be able to take advantage of the gap created by the US ban on Huawei. MediaTek chips manufactured by TSMC are economical and have become the first choice for many OEMs to quickly fill the market gap left by Huawei’s absence. Earlier, Huawei purchased a lot of chips before the ban was implemented. ” Counterpoint Research research director Dale Gai wrote in a report late last year.

According to Omdia’s data, MediaTek’s smartphone chip market share in 2020 will be 27%, slightly higher than Qualcomm’s 25%. However, Counterpoint data shows that Qualcomm is still in a leading position in the growing 5G field. The company reported that in the third quarter of 2020, Qualcomm provided chips for 39% of 5G mobile phones sold worldwide.

It needs to be explained that analysts attribute the rise of MediaTek to a series of factors, such as Xiaomi’s market growth and MediaTek’s share of Samsung. However, these findings once again highlight the wide-ranging impact of the US government’s ban on Huawei.

Qualcomm pointed out: “A large part of our business is concentrated in the Chinese market. The Sino-US trade and national security situation have exacerbated this concentration risk.”