- Qualcomm, Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM) received a license from the U.S. government to sell 4G mobile phone chips to China-based Huawei Technologies
Qualcomm, Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM) received a license from the U.S. government to sell 4G mobile phone chips to China-based Huawei Technologies. This means that Qualcomm has received an exemption to U.S. trade restrictions.
“We received a license for a number of products, which includes some 4G products,” said a Qualcomm spokeswoman in an interview with Reuters.
In September, Qualcomm and a number of other semiconductor companies had to stop selling to Huawei after the trade restrictions began.
It is unknown which 4G products Qualcomm is selling to Huawei, but it is related to mobile devices. Plus Qualcomm also has a number of other license applications pending with the U.S. government.
Huawei has been using its own proprietary chips for flagship handsets, but it has been leaning on Qualcomm for the lower-priced smartphones. And then Huawei’s ability to design its own chips were impacted by U.S. trade restrictions due to the lack of access to software and fabrication tools. It is believed that the stockpile of chips Huawei purchased prior to the ban could run out next year.
Even though the Qualcomm license could provide some relief for Huawei, it just covers 4G chips. It is unknown whether U.S. regulators will enable Qualcomm licenses for 5G chips.
