A few days ago, it was reported that the U.S. government is considering imposing a new round of sanctions on Huawei in May, which involves the sale and transfer of 4G and Wi-Fi technologies, while companies such as AMD, Intel, and Qualcomm have previously applied for approval for trade with Huawei. There is a chance that the license will be revoked. Some Chinese media quoted sources as saying that Huawei’s flagship mobile phone launch plan in the second half of the year will be affected by this.
As one of the main suppliers of Huawei’s mobile phone chips shortly, Qualcomm also needs to respond to the above rumors during the 2023 first-quarter performance report event held recently. Alex Rogers, president of Qualcomm Technology Licensing and Global Affairs, pointed out that Qualcomm has not yet received the reported changes from the US Department of Commerce, and they do not expect any significant impact on Huawei’s shipments.
Rogers said that Qualcomm’s current license allows them to supply 4G and other technologies including Wi-Fi to Huawei. The license issued by the Department of Commerce lasts for many years and confirms that the relevant technologies will not pose a threat to US national security.
Department of Commerce, Huawei cannot entrust a chipmaker to produce its own Kirin processor, so it can only rely on Qualcomm to supply the 4G version of the Snapdragon 8 series processor to maintain the launch of new mobile phones. It is expected that this year, all flagship mobile phone processors will be supplied by Qualcomm.
