The US has gone ahead and revoked licences issued to Intel and Qualcomm for sales of chips to Huawei.
Bloomberg reported the decision on Wednesday, with Intel and Qualcomm subsequently confirming it, though both companies reiterated that the decision would have a limited impact on its business.
Intel said that it expects second-quarter revenue to fall below the midpoint of previously issued projections due to the Huawei chip sale ban. Revenue will remain within the previously guided range of A$19.02 billion to A$20.54 billion, “but below the midpoint.”
Qualcomm also confirmed in a statement Wednesday that one of its licenses to sell to Huawei was revoked and said that it “will continue to comply with all applicable export control regulations.”
Qualcomm has reportedly recently said that its Huawei business is already limited and will soon shrink to zero. Its licence which has now been revoked allowed it to supply Huawei with chips that provide older 4G network connections, but prohibited it from selling chips that facilitated more advanced 5G access.
US House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul said that the move is required to prevent China from developing advanced artificial intelligence.
China’s Ministry of Commerce lashed out at the decision on Wednesday saying that withdrawing the export licences is “economic coercion” and violates World Trade Organization rules. “China resolutely opposes the United States overstretching the concept of national security and abusing export controls to suppress Chinese companies without justification”.
Last year, Huawei surprised the world when it released its Mate pro 60 with a 7nm chip – something that completely blindsided the US who were convinced that China did not have the capability to do so and was still only capable of producing 14nm chips. With the current rate of advancement, China is threatening to get to the US’ current capability of accessing 3nm chips from TSMC.
