Huawei is facing a dearth of research and development talent brought on by U.S. trade sanctions. As reported by Digitimes this may be their biggest worry going forward if they wish to stage a comeback.
This is an interesting report as it flies in the face of another recent story that argued Huawei would use the sanctions as an opportunity to grow and show strength. However, the sanctions have clearly had an impact as reports also suggest the Mate 40 series will be delayed due to the sanctions.
The U.S. clearly designed the trade sanction in order to create the maximum possible disruption for Huawei. A number of the impacts seen already have been things that most did not initially consider. However, retaining staff was certainly something that most had not foreseen at all.
Huawei worried about losing R&D talent
Retaining and recruiting research and development talent is tough at the best of time for Huawei. However, in the position the company finds itself this becomes doubly difficult.
Despite the fact that de-Americanization and de-Sinicization sentiments are prevalent in the tech supply chains holding onto talent is still a problem. Right now strengthening Huawei’s home-grown R&D momentum in the semiconductor conductor industry is Huawei’s biggest task
This is because a lack of semiconductor chips is likely to be Huawei’s biggest problem brought on by the trade sanctions. Therefore, procuring R&D talent is one of the biggest tasks to achieve a functioning homegrown semiconductor program.
R&D talent have become scarce strategic resources
Insider resources have claimed that semiconductor research and development talent is now a scarce resource in itself. These trade sanctions now exacerbate the problem.
Right now Huawei and Hisilicon have had to halt their new chips R&D projects due to the sanctions. This has resulted in engineers taking long-term non-paid leave. Many of the R&D researches in Taiwan have already resigned. However, the team itself has not already dissolved.
Recently, reports suggested the Huawei could even drop out of the global smartphone market entirely due to the sanctions. At the time this seemed a little far-fetched but now these more wide-ranging impacts of the sanctions reveal themselves, the troubles Huawei face become clearer.
Huawei will hope they are able to recover from such issues. However, the longer the sanctions go on the more problematic the situation becomes. With no solution in sight the chances of this saga ending soon also seem pretty low making Huawei’s situation rather bleak.