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TAIPEI – Huawei Technologies said Wednesday that it will continue to work with suppliers who are willing and able to stick with the Chinese company as it “fights for survival” against increasingly intense US repression.
“Huawei is in a difficult situation these days. Continued aggression from the US government has put us under significant pressure,” Guo Ping, Huawei’s rotating chairman, said on Wednesday. “Huawei is still carefully evaluating the impacts, but fighting for survival is our main goal now.”
Guo, speaking at the annual Huawei Connect technology forum, said the company will continue to invest in connectivity, high-performance computing, the cloud and artificial intelligence, and will continue to support all supply chain partners that can still work with Huawei.
“Helping our supply chain grow stronger will help Huawei itself,” Guo said. As an example, he cited how Huawei has worked with Cooler Master, a traditional provider of heat dissipation solutions, to upgrade its technologies for use in 5G base stations. “We will continue to work with our partners to enhance their capabilities, ensuring that there are many benefits for them throughout the process and that we can grow together,” the executive added.
Guo’s remarks are the first public comment by a Huawei executive since the latest of Washington’s crackdowns went into effect last week. The US Department of Commerce announced on Aug. 17 that any supplier that uses US technologies in their development or production processes must obtain a license to ship to the Chinese company. Huawei and its suppliers had been scrambling to finalize shipments before the new rule’s grace period expired on September 15.
In a question-and-answer session after his speech, Guo said Huawei has relatively sufficient chip supplies for its cloud, server and telecom equipment businesses. “However, for smartphone chips, which we consume hundreds of millions each year, we are still looking for ways to address the problem,” he said.
He added that Huawei is willing to buy from US suppliers that receive the proper licenses, including Qualcomm, but also called on Washington to reconsider its crackdown, saying: “We hope the US government will reflect on its laws and regulations.”
Zhang Ping’an, president of Huawei’s consumer cloud services, also participated in the question and answer session, revealing for the first time that the company is in talks with other Chinese “smart device providers” to expand usage. Harmony operating system beyond Huawei itself. devices. Huawei began aggressively developing its own version of Google’s mobile services and the Android operating system after losing access to both due to the crackdown in Washington.
“We are even more determined to develop our own Huawei mobile services, although we will face restrictions on the supply of chips. We still have several hundred million users. We will use HMS and our HarmonyOS to continue serving them,” Zhang said.
On the hardware front, Intel and AMD, the two biggest vendors of central processing units (CPUs) for PCs and servers, this week made the rare move of publicly confirming that they have been granted licenses to ship some products to Huawei. although they did not specify the scope of the licenses. Both Intel and AMD are US companies.
Meanwhile, Huawei introduced a new generation of servers on September 21 that are powered by Intel microprocessors, a sign that the Chinese company could continue to have access to important American components. In early September, Huawei introduced two new laptops built with CPUs from Intel and AMD.
Intel China Chairman Ian Yang this week made an unusual comment to Chinese news outlet Yicai saying his company, the largest US chip maker by revenue, remains fully committed to the Chinese market and not it is reasonable for China and the US to “decouple” their tech industries.
“China’s advantages are not something that any other country can replicate in a short period of time … So being in the same boat with China is going with the flow, developing together,” Yicai quoted Yang.
So far, no non-US vendors have said whether they have received approval to ship to Huawei. Infineon, Europe’s largest chipmaker, told Nikkei Asian Review that it takes compliance seriously and is implementing updated processes in response to the new regulations. “As part of these processes, our licensing efforts, like those of many in the industry, are ongoing,” Infineon said.
MediaTek, the world’s second-largest mobile chip provider after Qualcomm, said it has applied for a license to continue providing services to Huawei. China’s Semiconductor Manufacturing International Co., the country’s largest contract chip maker, also confirmed that it has sought the approval of the US government to resume business with Huawei, its largest customer, while reiterating that it will strictly comply. with US regulations.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Huawei’s largest chip production partner, said it halted shipments, but it is unclear whether the company has applied for licenses to make chips for Huawei. Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and Kioxia, three major Asian memory chip makers, declined to comment on whether they had requested approval from the US government, while Sharp and Micron did not respond to Nikkei’s request for comment on your current relationship with Huawei.
Sony declined to comment on Huawei, but said it has and will continue to comply with all applicable laws and regulations in conducting its business, including US export laws.
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