The United States revoked Qualcomm and Intel's export licenses to Huawei, fearing that the two companies would have too close ties with China

Observer.com

2024-05-08 09:59Posted on the official account of Shanghai Observer.com

On May 7, Bloomberg, the Financial Times and Reuters and other foreign media quoted news that the Biden administration further tightened export restrictions on Huawei on the same day, revoking the licenses of American chip companies Qualcomm and Intel to sell semiconductors to Huawei. The U.S. Department of Commerce confirmed on the same day that it had "revoked some of its export licenses to Huawei," but did not say which U.S. companies were affected.

According to anonymous sources, the latest measures of the US government against Huawei will affect the supply of chips for Huawei's mobile phones and laptops. The Commerce Department has notified the affected companies but did not provide details, the sources said.

A person familiar with the matter told Reuters that some companies received notices on the 7th local time, and their export licenses were immediately revoked.

Republican Congressman Michael McCaul, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, confirmed the matter in an interview on the 7th, saying that this is a key move to prevent China from developing advanced artificial intelligence. According to McCaul, the move blocked Intel and Qualcomm from selling any chips to Huawei, after "we had been concerned that the two companies were too close to China."

Reuters mentioned that last month, Huawei released its first AI-enabled laptop, the MateBook X Pro. Because the computer is equipped with Intel's new Core Ultra 9 processor, US Republican lawmakers criticized the Commerce Department for "giving the green light" to Intel's exports to Huawei.

The U.S. Commerce Department confirmed to the Financial Times on the same day that it had "revoked some of its export licenses to Huawei," but did not say which U.S. companies would be affected. "Given the evolving threat landscape and technology landscape, we continually assess how our controls can best protect our national security and foreign policy interests," a ministry spokesperson said. ”

On April 11, Huawei's new MateBook X Pro was officially released. Picture from Visual China

According to Reuters, the decision is the latest move by the United States to restrict China's access to semiconductor technology after a multi-year review of export restrictions to Huawei, which could affect Huawei's near-term recovery and also hurt U.S. suppliers who are allowed to do business with the company.

However, Reuters pointed out that sources said that the Biden administration has rarely approved new license applications for Huawei in the past year or so. Bloomberg also analyzed that at present, Huawei is no longer among Qualcomm's top ten customers, nor is it on Intel's number one customer list. Qualcomm has recently said that its business with Huawei has been limited and will soon shrink to zero.

At the same time, Huawei's revenue has increased rapidly. On April 30, Huawei disclosed its first quarter report for 2024, during which the company achieved revenue of about 178.45 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 36.66%; The net profit attributable to the parent company was about 19.65 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 564.04%. Just a few days ago, data released by market research agency Canalys showed that Huawei regained the first place in the mobile phone market in Chinese mainland after 13 quarters, with shipments of 11.7 million units boosted by the Mate and nova series, a year-on-year increase of 70%, and a market share of 17%.

Canalys data shows that Huawei will regain the first place in the Chinese mainland market in the first quarter of 2024

The U.S. government placed Huawei on a "trade blacklist" in 2019, restricting most U.S. suppliers from shipping goods and technology to Huawei. Still, U.S. officials will issue licenses to some U.S. companies, allowing Huawei to acquire some of its products.

However, since the beginning of last year, many foreign media have reported that the Biden administration will further tighten the export license conditions for Huawei due to so-called "national security" considerations. The action will involve U.S. companies such as Qualcomm and Intel, covering products that use advanced 5G technology.

The Wall Street Journal bluntly said in March last year that the revocation of existing licenses could have a significant impact on U.S. chip producers. U.S. chip companies have previously said that imposing restrictions on such products is not good for the U.S. chip industry, as it would deprive chip companies of revenue from funding domestic research and development.

China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded at the time that the US has broadened the concept of national security, abused state power, and suppressed Chinese high-tech enterprises by unscrupulous means, which seriously violated the principles of market economy and fair competition. Facts have repeatedly shown that the United States is an unreliable and untrustworthy country, and this practice not only harms the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises, but also harms the interests of enterprises in the United States and other countries, and will seriously interfere with normal scientific and technological exchanges and trade between the two countries and even the world, and cause damage to the global industrial and supply chains.

This article is an exclusive manuscript of Observer.com and may not be reproduced without authorization.

View original image 810K

• 

•