New US sanctions set to squeeze Huawei's chip supply even further

(Image credit: HiSilicon)

The US plans to tighten the screw on Huawei even further with sanctions that limit the company’s access to off-the-shelf components.

Washington considers Huawei to be a risk to national security because of perceived links to the Chinese government.

Huawei has denied any allegations of wrongdoing while the US has yet to provide any evidence to support its claims.

Huawei sanctions

However last year, the Shenzhen-based mobile giant was added to the US ‘non-entity’ list, a status which severely restricts its access to American innovations, including Google applications and services. In May this year, these sanctions were tightened to include processors made for Huawei using US technologies.

Now the US Department of Commerce wants to close what it regards as further loopholes. Reports suggest that Huawei will be prevented from even sourcing generic commercially available products that have been made using US technologies

US firms interested in selling their wares would have to apply for a licence, but the government has not confirmed whether it had received or would approve any applications. Industry associations have warned that its members will lose revenues as a result.

Huawei declined to comment to TechRadar Pro but has unsurprisingly been highly critical of previous sanctions, even going so far as to claim that the measures in May threatened the future of its business. It has also been said that the firm’s HiSilicon chip division has stopped producing Huawei’s custom Kirin processors.

However despite its long-term difficulties, Huawei finally achieved its ambition of becoming the world’s biggest mobile phone manufacturer earlier this year, overtaking Samsung.

Via Reuters

Steve McCaskill is TechRadar Pro's resident mobile industry expert, covering all aspects of the UK and global news, from operators to service providers and everything in between. He is a former editor of Silicon UK and journalist with over a decade's experience in the technology industry, writing about technology, in particular, telecoms, mobile and sports tech, sports, video games and media. 

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