Huawei is turning to its own chip-making abilities in an effort to bypass a ban cutting off its access to U.S. technology.
The U.S. has alleged that Huawei maintains backdoors in its network equipment, backdoors that are reserved for law enforcement use. As a result, officials have claimed Huawei represents a clear security risk, and that its equipment could be used by Beijing to spy on companies and governments around the world. In fact, Huawei has been accused of basically being an arm of the Chinese government.
In an effort to slow Huawei’s dominance, the U.S. banned the company and prohibited U.S. firms from doing business with it without special license. That has yet to slow its growth, however, as the company continues to be one of the dominant network equipment providers.
Huawei is stepping up its efforts to bypass the U.S. ban. According to Bloomberg, the company is turning to its own chip-making capabilities, selling as many as 50,000 network base stations in the fourth quarter, base stations that are completely free of U.S. chips or technology. Ultimately, the company would prefer to go back to using U.S. chips, but it may soon be too late.
“It’s still our intention to return to using U.S. technology,” Tim Danks, U.S. executive in charge of partner relations, told Bloomberg. Danks did, however, acknowledge that the longer Huawei uses its own chips, the harder it will be to go back to U.S. chips. This is likely a result of the natural decisions, dependencies and forks in the road that come with any development cycle.
Either way, the ongoing battle between the U.S. and Huawei shows no sign of abating.