Qualcomm Can Now Sell 4G Chipsets to Huawei

In the first major scaling back of the U.S. blacklisting of Huawei, the U.S. government is now allowing Qualcomm to sell 4G chipsets to the Chinese firm.

“We received a license for a number of products, which includes some 4G products,” a Qualcomm spokeswoman told Reuters, confirming news that it had obtained an exception to the U.S. blacklisting of Huawei. Qualcomm says, too, that the 4G chipsets are “related to mobile devices” and exclude newer 5G-compatible chipsets.

And other reports state that Qualcomm isn’t the only U.S. tech firm to get an exception for Huawei: Intel (PC chips), Samsung (mobile displays), Sony (mobile camera lenses), and presumably others are now selling hardware components to the Chinese firm after being banned from doing so for months.

The U.S. government had previously been very vocal about its fears that Huawei was a national security threat, but with the transition to a new presidential administration now underway, it’s been silent on the Huawei issue. Hopefully, we’ll learn more soon.