Huawei enters "wartime state": employees worry about layoffs, and some HiSilicon executives have resigned

Semiconductors are needed for mobile phones and base stations, and these two business lines account for 90% of Huawei's business. If these products cannot be produced, these businesses will be foreseeably affected. After the United States announced on August 17 that it would try tougher sanctions, analysts believed that this was almost a "death sentence" for Huawei. Huawei employees are increasingly worried that the company will face layoffs, describing the company as having entered a "state of war."

The Financial Times reported that an employee of Huawei's R&D department said: "Our company has been urging us to adapt to this 'state of war'." "But we are still worried. Will our interests be sacrificed? Will layoffs eventually fall on me?" "If all chips, whether advanced or mature, are banned on August 17, what products can we produce?"

An employee in Huawei's R&D department said of colleagues who had left the company, "Colleagues who were very worried about this happening have already left." Another engineer said it was "disturbing" that he no longer had to work overtime.

Data shows that in 2013, 65% of Huawei's revenue came from overseas, but this had shrunk to 41% in 2019. A Huawei human resources employee said that in the past, everyone would line up to apply for overseas work, but now more and more overseas employees are returning to China. As the international situation heats up, the company is facing the dilemma of reduced job vacancies, and applicants are also worried about the international situation.

Some employees have been transferred to other departments, some have resigned or been laid off. And because Huawei has focused on the domestic market after being sanctioned, the proportion of employees in the global marketing team who have been fired or transferred to other departments is relatively high, and many senior executives have already resigned.

At Huawei's Shenzhen headquarters, about half of the company's 194,000 employees work in research and development.

Huawei's consumer business CEO Richard Yu has recently admitted that due to US sanctions, the production of the high-end smartphone processor "Kirin 9000" will be terminated, and TSMC will "cut off" chip supply on September 15. A team member of Huawei's chip design business HiSilicon revealed that "many people have left, and they are all top people." "They were very low-key when they left. If they were too high-profile, they would easily be sanctioned by the United States."

However, the Financial Times also stated that not all Huawei employees are worried about the US sanctions, and most employees are full of confidence.

An employee of Huawei Cloud said: "I feel that everyone is very calm because we still have many unfinished projects on hand and government projects are coming." Other employees said that they have become accustomed to the US announcements and hardly pay attention to them anymore. They said that the company is ready and self-sufficient projects are underway. "Strong opponents will force us to become stronger." said an employee.