The administration of outgoing US President Donald Trump has halted shipment of supplies by several companies to Huawei, a move that marks the last strike to weaken the Chinese telecommunications giant, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The suppliers, including US-based chipmaker Intel, have been notified that their licenses to sell to the Chinese company were being revoked by the Trump administration, which also said it planned to reject dozens of other applications to supply the firm.
The US Commerce Department indicated its “intents to deny a significant number of license requests for exports to Huawei and a revocation of at least one previously issued license,” according to an email obtained by the news agency.
The email by the Semiconductor Industry Association said suppliers had been waiting “many months” for decisions about their licenses, but now with a few days left in the administration, dealing with it was a challenge. Democrat Joe Biden will take the oath of office as president on Wednesday.
The new move spanned a “broad range” of products in the semiconductor industry.
On Monday, Asian chip stocks and Huawei suppliers including Samsung Electronics Co., Tokyo Electron Ltd., Advantest Corp. and Lasertec Corp. dropped between 1% and 4% in early trading.
The US put Huawei on a Commerce Department “entity list” in May 2019 over national security concerns, constraining suppliers from selling US goods and technology to the Chinese firm.
Although some sales were permitted, others were denied while Washington ratcheted up the restrictions against the company, including expanding US authority to require licenses for sales of semiconductors made abroad with American technology.
Prior to the latest move by the US administration, nearly 150 licenses were pending for $120 billion worth of goods and technology, according to a source, which had been held up since various American agencies were not able to agree on whether they should be granted.
Washington claims without proof that the telecom giant’s products are used to spy on Americans for Beijing. The Chinese government and Huawei have, however, denied the allegation.
Chinese officials accuse Washington of using national security as an excuse to stop a competitor to US tech industries.