In 2019, the US placed Huawei at a trading blacklist, which meant that U.S. companies needed a special license to continue trading. Licenses were granted to, among others, AMD, Intel and Qualcommthe latter was only allowed to ship 4G chipsets (which we’ve seen in recent Huawei P and Mate series models).
Licenses continued to be issued during the early days of President Biden’s administration, but insiders now say the US is looking to expand its list of banned items.
The new additions would include 4G technology, Wi-Fi 6 and 7, technology related to artificial intelligence and high performance and cloud computing. New licenses for 4G products are already being refused, according to an insider.
As for old licenses, a technical expert said the Department of Commerce wants to revoke all old licenses. And even if it doesn’t explicitly do it, those licenses will eventually expire.
In October, Biden introduced new export controls on equipment used to manufacture semiconductors, the restrictions that applied to technology for nodes more advanced than 14nm and in some cases even 16nm. Japan and the Netherlands join US efforts and will ban its domestic companies from exporting equipment to China, one claimed Bloomberg report from a few days ago. These restrictions are designed to stifle the growth of China’s domestic semiconductor industry. Huawei has already confirmed that Kirin is not coming backthis year at least, as the company can’t find a foundry that doesn’t use US-based technology.
Huawei was best known for its smartphones and networking equipment, but the company has had to adapt. For example, it has moved into cloud computing, a company that could soon become the target of US sanctions.
Huawei experienced a sharp drop in revenue in 2021 as trade restrictions came into effect (sales fell by a third). However, it has been relatively stable since then and as of December 2022, it posted a total revenue of $91.53 billion.
The US Department of Commerce has not commented on details of future trade export bans.