Intel, Qualcomm halts shipment of vital hardware to Huawei

Huawei seems to be facing more and more obstacles following the US trade ban.

The Trump administration has blacklisted Huawei on Friday (May 17) following accusations of spying for Beijing. On Monday (May 20), Google, in a sudden move, revoked Huawei’s Android license and removed its access to the Google Play store.

Because of the suspension, Huawei may face a massive blow to its smartphone business outside China. Current Huawei users may no longer get crucial security updates to Google’s Android operating system, and future versions of Huawei’s Android smartphones can lose access to Google’s apps such as YouTube and Gmail.

Read: Google and Android system start to cut ties with Huawei

Intel, Qualcomm, and Broadcom are the leading chip designers and manufacturers in the world, and they have just severed deal agreements with Huawei. The German-based Infineon Technologies as well as US Micron Technology and Western digital have been added to the list of companies that have suspended chip shipments to Huawei.

Bloomberg reported that the US companies “told their employees they will not supply Huawei until further notice.” Huawei relies on Intel for its server chips and processors for laptops, while it gets modems from Qualcomm.

European chipmakers such as Infineon may be soon be following suit, choosing to “adopt a more cautious measure” and stop the shipments to China. However, Infineon added that the company is also open to “make adaptions in [their] international supply chain” since they are not covered by US restrictions.

Huawei has reportedly hoarded chips from US suppliers in preparation for this current scenario. Huawei, the number two smartphone supplier and world’s largest telecom hardware manufacturer, is also developing its own operating system in anticipation of the US ban.

Experts argue that the decision to block shipments to Huawei can also affect American business such as Micron Technology and delay the manufacturing and delivery of 5G wireless networks worldwide.

Huawei relies heavily on US companies for 5G components used in the devices they are developing. Such delays may hit the demand for smartphones and networking equipment and severely affect the development of new 5G-dependent technologies like self-driving cars. -/TISG