The U. S. Commerce Department has added Huawei to its
Huawei has been placed on The United States Department of Commerce’s “Entity List,” prohibiting the company from acquiring parts and components from U. S. companies without the approval of the federal government. This occurred on May 15, and the move is thought to be leverage in the ongoing trade war between the U. S. and China.
The situation continues to escalate and alter by the day, with more questions arising. Here’s what you need to know.
ARM, the U. K- based company that designs the architecture on which most of the world’s mobile and computer chips are produced, has apparently issued instructions to cease working with Huawei, according to leaked documents obtained by the BBC. Despite being in the U. K., and now owned by a Japanese firm, the documents state some of ARM’s technology is of U. S. origin, forcing it to comply with the Department of Commerce’s order.
The instruction doesn’t stop Huawei from making chips now, but it may hurt future chip design and production. Huawei produces its own mobile processors, named Kirin, under a separate arm of the company called HiSilicon. It works closely with ARM on the development of these chips, just like Apple, Qualcomm, and Samsung.
Neither ARM nor Huawei has not commented on the leak.
Google initially suspended most of its partnerships with the Chinese smartphone maker for future products in an effort to comply with a U. S. government ruling. Officials told Reuters that the decision will make it difficult, if not impossible, for Huawei to sell some products due to its reliance on U. S. suppliers. However, to avoid unintended negative consequences to U. S. companies who have been dealing with Huawei, the Commerce Department soon rolled back some of its earlier restrictions on the Chinese telecom firm, according to a Reuters report.
In revising its policy temporarily for 90 days, the U. S. government will allow Huawei to purchase American-made parts and components so that it can maintain existing networks and update existing smartphones. The company is still prohibited from purchasing U.
