The US Commerce Department recently revoked licenses that allow technology companies including Intel and Qualcomm, to ship out their chips to the Chinese telecoms maker, Huawei. One source told Reuters that the revocation was instated with immediate effect.
“We have revoked certain licenses for exports to Huawei,” the US Commerce Department said in a statement, declining to specify which ones it had withdrawn. Unfortunately for them, the cat’s more or less out of the bag.
The US’ decision to revoke licenses comes after Huawei launched its first AI-enabled laptop, the MateBook X Pro. Internally, the laptop is powered by Intel’s 14th Gen Core Ultra 9 CPU, which is also the brand’s top-of-the-line SKU.
The move by the US government comes after members within the country’s Republican party pressured the Biden administration to take a tougher stance against Huawei and its supposed AI goals. “This action will bolster U.S. national security, protect American ingenuity, and diminish Communist China’s ability to advance its technology,” Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik said in a statement.
It’s become abundantly clear that Huawei hasn’t been able to catch a break since it was first put on the US trade restriction list in 2019. The majority of these bans and sanctions against it stem from fear within the US government the company is helping its home country of China to fortify and bolster its military power, which China has practically dismissed as paranoia.
To be clear, Intel and Qualcomm would still technically be able to trade with Huawei; the companies will now just have to apply for a special, even more difficult-to-obtain license before shipping, with the presumption of denial. That said, Huawei may not be doing too bad at the moment, given how it released a smartphone powered by a chip manufactured by the Chinese chipmaker, SMIC.
