When the Chips Are Down

U.S. restrictions on Huawei seem to have no end in sight. On August 17, the U.S. Commerce Department expanded its curb on the Chinese tech giant to cut off all its access to U.S. technology-backed components.

It also added another 38 Huawei affiliates to its economic blacklist, which indicates they are required to obtain a license from the U.S. Government when they “act as a purchaser, intermediate consignee, ultimate consignee, or end user.”

“It basically blocks the way for Huawei to directly purchase chips from other chip manufacturers that use U.S. technology,” Jia Mo, an analyst at market research company Canalys, said.

Richard Yu, President of Huawei’s consumer unit, said at a press conference on August 7 that this year may mark