You might be wondering what is happening since ARM, the semiconductor giant isn’t a US company. It is actually a British company with its headquarters in Cambridge, England but which is now owned by Japan’s SoftBank. So, why is it announcing that it is suspending business with Huawei following the recent trade ban by the US?
In the memo which ARM sent to its employees, it instructed them to stop all “active contracts, support entitlements, and any pending engagements” with Huawei and its subsidiaries. The reason it gave for this is that its chip designs which Huawei uses for its Kirin processors contain “US-origin technology”! Hence, the US trade ban covers them.
This is a big blow for Huawei as that means it can’t develop new processors (the Kirin 985 is reportedly not affected and maybe the next gen Kirin 700 SoC which may already be in development).
It has been reported that the memo was sent out to workers on May 16 last week, and even with the 90-day temporary reprieve granted by the US, ARM employees have not been told they can resume work with Huawei.
The memo informed its members of staff to send a message to Huawei’s own employees informing them that they will not be able to “provide support, deliver technology (whether software, code or other updates), engage in technical discussions, or otherwise discuss technical matters with Huawei, HiSilicon, or any of the other named entities”. ARM staff have also been instructed to “politely decline” and end conversations related to business with Huawei employees at industry events.
The ban is said to also affect ARM China, a company in China which ARM Holdings owns a 49% stake in. The company was established last year between ARM and a Chinese investment group to help ARM develop and offer products and support in China.
Huawei phones use chipsets from Qualcomm, MediaTek, and its own in-house developed Kirin SoCs. It is not yet clear if ARM Holdings is misinterpreting the US ban but if it isn’t, it means Huawei won’t be able to use MediaTek processors to which are built on ARM technologies.
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Huawei hasn’t released a statement yet on the current development. However, this might be the biggest blow to its business as it might not have a backup plan for this.
