Skip to main content
Open this photo in gallery:

A Huawei employee uses her phone at the Huawei Digital Transformation Showcase in Shenzhen, China, on March 6, 2019.WANG ZHAO/AFP/Getty Images

Ramped up U.S. restrictions on Huawei are likely to choke the Chinese company’s access to even off-the-shelf chips, threaten its crown as the world’s largest smartphone maker and disrupt global tech supply, executives and experts warned.

The Trump administration expanded its curbs on Huawei on Monday and banned suppliers from selling chips made using U.S. technology to the firm without a special licence – closing potential loopholes in its May sanctions that could have let Huawei access the tech through third parties.

The curbs underscore the growing rift in Sino-U.S. ties as Washington presses governments to squeeze Huawei out, alleging the company would hand over data to Beijing for spying. Huawei denies it spies for China.

“If the choking of Huawei continues there will be reverberations across the semiconductor complex,” said Neil Campling, head of TMT research at Mirabaud Securities. “And the retaliation from China remains unknown and a significant risk.”

The tech giant’s business has suffered since America first blacklisted it a year ago.

If Huawei cannot source chipsets as a result of the expanded curbs, its “handset business will likely disappear”, Jefferies said in a note.

Other brokerages, including JP Morgan, echoed that view, adding this would give players such as Xiaomi Corp. and Apple Inc. an opportunity to increase their market share.

Huawei did not respond to requests for a comment.

Earlier this month, Huawei flagged it would stop making its flagship Kirin chipsets from September because U.S. pressure on its suppliers had made it impossible for its HiSilicon division to keep making the chipsets that are key components in mobile phones.

Huawei’s HiSilicon division has relied on software from U.S. companies such as Synopsys Inc. to design its chips. It outsourced the production to Taiwanese contract chipmaker TSMC , which uses equipment from U.S. companies.

IMPACT ON CHIP SUPPLIERS

The U.S. ban represents a setback for chip suppliers too, at least in the near term, as they have to apply for licences that comply with the new rules, experts said.

It is yet unclear how many suppliers require these licences and whether they will get them.

In Asia, memory chipmakers including South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and SK Hynix Inc., Japanese image sensor maker Sony Corp. and Taiwanese chipset maker MediaTek Inc. may be affected, a chip industry source said.

Shares in MediaTek, which counts Huawei as a major customer, slumped 10 per cent on Tuesday.

MediaTek said it was monitoring new developments of rules to remain in compliance, but that it did not expect a material impact to near-term operations, based on available information.

In Europe, German chipmaker Infineon Technologies AG, which counts Huawei as a key customer for its power management products, and Austrian sensor specialist ams AG said they were reviewing the impact of the latest U.S. restrictions.

European tech stocks were firmer, however, reflecting their relatively low exposure to Huawei, which accounts for 7 per cent of sales at ams, 3 per cent at Infineon and 4 per cent at STMicroelectronics NV, according to figures cited by Mirabaud’s Campling.

WHO WILL BE THE WINNERS?

Several questions remain about the how the new curbs will be implemented, and how hawkish a position Washington plans to take.

For example, a semiconductor vendor would “potentially be required to know where all its products end up so they do not engage in any transaction where a Huawei affiliate might be a purchaser, intermediate consignee, ultimate consignee or end-user”, political risk consultant Eurasia Group said in a note.

But there are likely to be some winners in the longer term if Huawei is forced to relinquish its spot as the world’s largest smartphone maker.

“Huawei currently has 45-50 per cent market share in China and, if this becomes vulnerable, Xiaomi, along with Oppo and Vivo, are likely to be the biggest beneficiaries,” JP Morgan analyst Gokul Hariharan said, referring to Chinese smartphone makers.

“Huawei would also be likely to lose further ground in the international smartphone space and 5G base stations, both of which could benefit Samsung. The Apple food chain could also benefit from potential iPhone share gains.”

TSMC, which has said it would not ship wafers to Huawei after Sept. 15, will be slightly hurt in the long run, Bernstein said in a note. “TSMC is ‘everybody’s foundry’ eventually.”

The ban is also likely to affect U.S. chipmakers such as Qualcomm Inc., but those losses are likely to be offset in the longer term as Huawei’s rivals gain ground, analysts said.

Be smart with your money. Get the latest investing insights delivered right to your inbox three times a week, with the Globe Investor newsletter. Sign up today.

Follow related authors and topics

Authors and topics you follow will be added to your personal news feed in Following.

Interact with The Globe