The United States has revoked certain licenses for chip exports to Chinese tech giant Huawei as a part of its latest effort to curb China's technology power, the Commerce Department told CNBC on Tuesday.
“We continually assess how our controls can best protect our national security and foreign policy interests, taking into account an ever-changing threat environment and technological landscape,” a Commerce spokesperson said in a press release.
“As part of this process, as we have done in the past, we sometimes revoke export licenses,” the spokesman said, declining to comment on specific licenses. “However, we can confirm that we have revoked certain licenses for exports to Huawei.”
Huawei was placed on a U.S. trade blacklist in 2019 that banned U.S. corporations from selling technology – including 5G chips – to the Chinese tech giant on national security grounds. In 2020, the US tightened chip restrictions on Huawei, requiring foreign manufacturers using American chipmaking facilities to acquire a license before selling semiconductors to Huawei.
Huawei's consumer business, which incorporates smartphones and laptops, is seeing a revival following the launch of the Mate 60 Pro smartphone in August.
A TechInsights An evaluation of Huawei's Mate 60 Pro smartphone revealed a sophisticated chip from China's leading chipmaker SMIC. The smartphone can be said to be equipped with 5G connectivity – a feature that was purported to be blocked by US sanctions.
US chip corporations Qualcomm And Intel are two of the businesses that offer chips to Huawei. Qualcomm in a single SEC filing Earlier this month, the corporate said it expects operations to be “further impacted” by customers like Huawei developing its own chips.
“Although we have continued to sell integrated circuit products to Huawei under our licenses, we do not expect to receive product sales from Huawei beyond the current calendar year,” Qualcomm said.
“To the extent that Huawei's 5G devices receive shares from Chinese OEMs that use our 5G products or non-Chinese OEMs that use our 5G products in devices they sell in China, our “Revenues, operating results and cash flows will continue to increase,” Qualcomm said.
Last month, Huawei launched a brand new range of phones – the Pura 70 series – to combat competition Apple in China.
According to Counterpoint Research, Apple is under pressure from Huawei in China as iPhone sales fell 19.1% in the primary quarter while Huawei's smartphone sales rose 69.7%.
Huawei's net profit rose 144.5% to 87 billion yuan (about $12 billion) in 2023 from a 12 months earlier, driven partly by sales of the Mate 60 Pro in China, the corporate said in March .
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