The revised U.S. trade ban that was imposed in September disallowed Huawei from doing business with the companies in the U.S. Since Taiwan based TSMC chip maker US based equipment for Huawei’s Kirin SoCs, the Chinese firm has found itself in a situation where it cannot use the Kirin chipsets to power its handsets. Recent reports have revealed that Qualcomm has been granted permission to work with Huawei. A fresh report by Reuters state that the Qualcomm has received permission to sell 4G chipsets to Huawei.
The report states that the US based chip manufacturer was granted permission on Friday. It has been allowed as an exception to the existing U.S. trade ban. According to a Qualcomm spokeswoman, ““We received a license for a number of products, which includes some 4G products.”
It is unclear which specific 4G chipsets will Qualcomm provide to Huawei. The spokeswoman only revealed that Huawei can now use chipsets designed for mobile devices. She also revealed that the U.S. government is yet to approve other license applications.
While Qualcomm chipset powers many Android phones across different price points and brands, it has not been a major customer for Huawei since it mostly launched Kirin SoC powered phones. Huawei stockpiled Kirin chipsets before the ban. However, the stocks are expected to deplete by early 2021.
The permission to use 4G chipsets by Qualcomm has come at a time when the consumers are switching to 5G-ready smartphones. It is unclear whether the U.S. government will soon allow Qualcomm to also ship 5G chipsets to Huawei.
