US-based chipmaker Qualcomm is reportedly lobbying the U.S. government to remove restrictions on the sale of components to Huawei after the Chinese smartphones and network equipment company was blacklisted by the United States.
Reports suggest that Qualcomm is lobbying to sell chips to Huawei which it will use in its 5G phones.
The chipmaker is arguing that the ban won’t prevent the Chinese phone maker from procuring necessary parts from other manufacturers like MediaTek and Samsung and subsequently, it is losing as much as $8 billion annually to its foreign competitors due to the restrictions placed by US authorities
The firm has also recently resolved a licensing dispute with Huawei which will pay Qualcomm a payment of $1.8 billion in the fourth quarter of this fiscal.
Very few companies have managed to get exceptions to the US ban through licenses, such as Intel, Micron and Xilinx. Smartphones represent a key part of Huawei’s business and allowing a major exception like this could be seen as weakening the ban. It might also be deemed inconsistent when software companies like Google are still barred from interacting with the Chinese firm.
