The world is currently fighting against the dreadful coronavirus pandemic. Individuals, cooperatives, companies, governments are all part of this fight. However, the US is not losing sight of its fight against Huawei just before the pandemic broke out. According to Reuters, the US government is preparing a massive crackdown on Huawei’s global chip supply. The U.S. government now seeks to ban Taiwanese company, TSMC, from providing chip foundry services to Huawei.
In May 2019, the US added Huawei in the list of entities. Since then, it expands the scope of the ban. Although the U.S. continually extends the temporary license for Huawei, it is obvious that it will not let Huawei go. Now, the US government is preparing to expand the coverage of the ban. In the new expansion, non-U.S. companies such as TSMC which use U.S. chip manufacturing equipment must also obtain a U.S. license before they can supply chips to customers.
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According to Reuters, sources claim that the main purpose of expanding the ban is to cut off TSMC’s chip supply to Huawei. However, other chip manufacturers like KLA Corp, Lam Research and Applied Materials will also be affected.
Companies in the US will also suffer
However, will Huawei be suffering alone? Certainly not, according to US economic and trade lawyer Doug Jacobson. He believes that such a ban will have a negative impact on US companies. According to him, the impact on these companies will be far greater than the impact on Huawei. Certainly, this will force Huawei to its own supply chain.
In fact, at the beginning of “blocking” Huawei in the United States, there were concerns about whether TSMC could no longer manufacture chips for Huawei, but the cooperation between the two parties has been proceeding normally. It could also force TSMC to develop chips without using any U.S. technology. In the long run, the U.S will be losing its “little grip” on the manufacturing industry.
Well, this proposal will still have to go through president Trump and it is unclear if he will sign it. On its part, Huawei has not made any comment on this recent development.