According to a new report, from Reuters, the US has decided to allow Huawei to buy chips, but not for smartphones. Reuters says that this information comes from “two people familiar with the matter”.
Do note that the company got approval to get chips that go in car parts, including both video screens and sensors. This is not exactly surprising, as auto components are not really considered “sophisticated”, as the source says.
Huawei seems to be leaning towards tech that is less likely to be banned by the US. It seems like it was worth it, at least at the moment. Do note that this information has not been officially confirmed by the US or Huawei.
Having said that, Huawei is still banned where it matters most. Huawei got placed on the US entity list a year ago. Foundries that make semiconductors using US tech were forbidden to sell chips to Huawei, without getting a special license.
That managed to mess up Huawei’s plans entirely. Even Huawei’s Kirin 9000 processor got affected by the issue. As a result, Huawei decided to stop manufacturing Kirin SoCs altogether. That’s a shame, as they were really compelling processors.
Huawei’s chairman, Guo Ping, even confirmed, quite recently, that Huawei’s biggest problem is sourcing cutting-edge chips. He meant that in general, as the US ban managed to mess up more than one business aspect of the company.
Huawei would love to get permission to buy processors for its smartphones, but that doesn’t look likely to happen. Huawei was once flying high in the smartphone market, but it lost its position due to the US ban.
Huawei was the second-largest smartphone manufacturer in the world, and many projections said it could overthrow Samsung. Well, instead, the US decided to cut its wings, and that hurt the company quite a bit.
Huawei fell off the top 5 smartphone manufacturers list. If the US allows it to buy processors for its smartphones, and lifts the ban for cooperation with Google as well, Huawei could focus on climbing the ladder once again. That doesn’t look likely, though, at least not at the moment. The US still sees a security threat in Huawei, due to alleged ties with the Chinese government, even though Huawei denied that on a number of occasions
