The Trump administration has revoked the licence of several companies to supply components to Huawei. As a result, Intel, among others, can no longer supply chips to the Chinese company.
This writes Reuters based on sources. Besides Intel, at least one of the licences of the Japanese company Kioxia has also been revoked. The company, formerly known as Toshiba Memory, produces flash memory chips.
Besides the stories from sources, Reuters has also seen an e-mail from the Semiconductor Industry Association. It states that the US Department of Commerce “intents to deny a significant number of license requests for exports to Huawei and a revocation of at least one previously issued license”. However, according to sources, more than one licence hat has been withdrawn, possibly up to eight.
Huawei makes several laptops that use Intel chips. Now that Intel is no longer authorised to sell equipment to Huawei, the future of these laptops is uncertain.
United States vs China
It is the latest and probably last action of the Trump administration to thwart Huawei. In 2020, the company ended up on a list of companies that may have associations with the Chinese military. Other companies need to have licences to trade with Huawei since. As a result, Huawei eventually felt compelled to split off smartphone branch Honor.
This week, Joe Biden will be inaugurated as president of the United States. It is unlikely that he will immediately reverse sanctions. He recently revealed his intentions regarding China in an interview.