Qualcomm and Huawei may be granted more trading licences in the future

Qualcomm may have been granted permission to trade with Huawei again, but the chipmaker cannot sell its full portfolio to the Chinese company. According to Reuters, the US government has granted Qualcomm a licence to supply Huawei with SoCs that contain 4G modems, so the likes of the Snapdragon 865 Plus remain off the table.

As it stands, Qualcomm could furnish Huawei with SoCs such as the Snapdragon 662 and Snapdragon 732G, along with older chipsets like the Snapdragon 855 and Snapdragon 855 Plus. Presumably, the licence would extend to the Snapdragon Wear 4100, Snapdragon Wear 4100+ and Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2, although Reuters is unclear on this.

However, the website also hints that this licence could be the first of more for Qualcomm and Huawei. Hence, the US government may grant Qualcomm another licence to supply Huawei with chipsets that contain 5G modems. The Department of Commerce declined to comment on the matter, but Qualcomm has other licence applications pending, according to a Qualcomm spokeswoman. So, we would not rule Huawei being granted a reprieve to use Qualcomm's latest SoCs.