ARM reportedly stops trading with Huawei

A US governmental ban that prevents companies based in this country from conducting business with Huawei has recently come into effect. The directive now blocks the electronics OEM from obtaining components from manufacturers such as Qualcomm. Now, it appears that the SoC intellectual property linchpin ARM can be added to that list.

This company has reportedly issued a memo to its staff with instructions to suspend any existing or pending agreements to work with Huawei. It has done so as it believes that it incorporates “US origin technology” into its products. The revocation of this particular relationship may have a particularly severe impact on Huawei's operations.

The OEM does design its own chipsets, through its dedicated subsidiary HiSilicon. However, as with many other similar components from many other companies, they are largely ARM-based. Therefore, the inability to access this technology may become, as one analyst has already noted, an "insurmountable" obstacle - especially for a group that once aspired to become the biggest smartphone company on Earth.