(SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The US is taking more action to stop US chip sales to Huawei by revoking licenses from Intel and Qualcomm to export certain processors to the Chinese tech company.
The White House has imposed sanctions on Huawei since 2019, forcing US companies to apply for a license to continue such sales. But on Tuesday, the Commerce Department took the additional action of stripping away pre-existing licenses for Qualcomm and Intel.
This comes weeks after some Republican lawmakers were angered to learn that Huawei launched a Windows laptop using Intel’s latest Core Ultra processors.
In Intel’s case, the company secured export licenses from the Trump administration to sell consumer-focused laptops chips to Huawei. According to Reuters, the licenses were supposed to expire later this year and were not expected to be renewed. Meanwhile, Qualcomm obtained a license to sell older 4G-related chips to the Chinese company.
But on Tuesday, US Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said the Commerce Department had revoked the licenses in an effort to further block processor sales to Huawei. Intel and Qualcomm "are two companies we’ve always worried about being a little too close to China,” McCaul told Bloomberg.
The Commerce Department hasn’t specified which permits were canceled. But in an SEC filing on Wednesday, Intel confirmed that the US agency had pulled “certain licenses for exports of consumer-related items to a customer in China, effective immediately.”
“As a result, the company expects revenue for the second quarter of 2024 to remain in the original range of $12.5 billion to $13.5 billion, but below the midpoint,” Intel added.
Huawei didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. It could affect laptop and smartphone sales, although Huawei has been finding ways to bypass US sanctions by developing its own processors and software for consumer products.