Huawei to Raise Prices on Smart Collaboration Product Line Terminals Starting July
N.R. Finch
Huawei has told channel partners it will raise prices on smart meeting terminals, tablets and enterprise smart screens from July 1, as chip-cost pressure driven by the AI buildout passes from upstream components through to device brands — Lenovo, OPPO, vivo and Xiaomi have announced similar moves.
What is Huawei raising prices on, and why?
The increase covers Huawei's Intelligent Collaboration line — smart meeting terminals, tablets and enterprise smart screens, all commercial devices, effective July 1.
Huawei cited the surge in AI large-model and high-performance computing demand, which has sharply driven up global chip needs. Core chips and key components have been rising in price since H2 2025, and the pressure has carried into 2026.
This means → the adjustment is not a one-product tweak — it is the cost bill from the AI compute buildout being passed down to end-user devices.
What signal does the HiSilicon price hike send?
Before Huawei's device-level move, its IC-design subsidiary HiSilicon was reported to have raised prices on select products. Huaqiang Industry, a major HiSilicon distributor, confirmed prices had risen but disclosed no specific products or percentages.
Market sources suggest the increases may involve surveillance chips, smart-vision processors and some AI edge-computing products.
This means → the pricing signal originated in the chip-design layer and propagated to finished devices — the upstream-first, downstream-follows transmission chain is now in place.
Why are chips getting more expensive — what is happening on both sides?
Supply side: TSMC, Samsung and SK Hynix are channeling capacity toward AI accelerators, high-end GPUs and HBM — high-bandwidth memory, a fast-storage technology purpose-built for AI chips. New capacity for mature-node chips (older-process chips used in enterprise gear, PCs and industrial controls) remains limited.
Demand side: China's appetite for mature-node chips is rising — semiconductor self-sufficiency goals and supply-chain localization are shifting orders to domestic sources, lifting demand for MCUs, analog ICs, networking and power components.
In plain terms = AI grabbed the cutting-edge fab capacity, nobody is expanding mature lines, and China is accelerating its "supply yourself" push — squeezed from both ends, mature-node chip prices go up.
Who else is raising prices?
Lenovo decided at an internal meeting to raise prices across its lineup from July, after June promotions end, and has told distributors to stock up early.
OPPO, vivo and Xiaomi have also disclosed pricing adjustments in recent weeks.
This means → Huawei and Lenovo moving almost in unison is not a company-specific pricing call — it is supply-chain cost inflation resonating across device brands, with the entire industry repricing inside the same window.
Can the market absorb these increases?
Official data show China's Q1 2026 smartphone shipments at roughly 60.8 million units, down 12.7% year-on-year.
Consumer demand has yet to stage a clear recovery; raising prices now carries a core risk — further suppressing sales volumes.
This reflects a dilemma: hold prices and margins get eaten by costs; raise prices and shipments may keep sliding — whether this round of increases sticks will be a key test of device brands' pricing power.
Content is for reference only, not financial advice.