Ever since the US trade ban has been imposed, Huawei has been in hot waters – so much so that the company couldn’t even launch flagship devices such as the Mate 30 series with Google services and in the markets that it would’ve initially liked.
The Chinese manufacturer still managed to push on and had a good 2019 with regards to the sale numbers. Now though, it looks like the Trump administration aren’t done on inflicting sanctions on the Chinese company.
The latest report from Reuters suggests that the US government is looking into a latest regulation which would change Huawei’s access to smartphone chipsets. The proposal aims to sever the company’s business relationship with chipmakers like Taiwan’s TSMC – which happens to be one of Huawei’s main chip suppliers.
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The proposal would allow the US government to make sure that the firms which use the country’s chip-making equipment get a license before they can supply to Huawei. What this means is that the US may have the power to dictate licensing terms for the technology or indeed have the power to completely block the issuing of licenses.
It has also been reporting that the US government is not just entertaining this thought as it is exploring other options as well.
Losing access to chipsets or indeed even a bit of disruption in the company’s supply chain would land Huawei in a very difficult situation. The repercussions that may follow would perhaps represent an even bigger loss than the one which followed the company being disallowed using Google services on its phones.
It just happens to be so that there is not one production line in China which employs equipment made only in the country. And so like one would have already imagined : it is an extremely difficult task to make any chipsets without US equipment involved.
