The Huawei P50 and P50 Pro may feature a Snapdragon 875 SoC

U.S. sanctions continue to restrict Huawei's smartphone business, to the extent that it may be on the verge of selling its Honor subdivision. Google Mobile Services (GMS) remain a no-go on Huawei and Honor smartphones, for example, while ARM and TSMC have also been shut-out from supplying components to Huawei for use in its HiSilicon chipsets. However, there could be a light at the end of the tunnel for Huawei, after all.

According to a report in Chinese media, the US government has granted Qualcomm a licence to trade with Huawei, just as it already has with Microsoft and Samsung Display. Better still, Qualcomm has enough capacity to supply Huawei with chips immediately. Huawei has already paid Qualcomm a sum of US$1.8 billion to cover patent fees, among other things, too.

The timing of the license agreement could be crucial for Huawei, as it currently has no chip supplier for its Mate and P-series smartphones. If a Huawei and Qualcomm partnership comes to fruition quickly, then we may see at least the P50 and P50 Pro debut early next year with the Snapdragon 875, Qualcomm's rumoured top-tier SoC for 2021. Neither Qualcomm nor Huawei have officially commented on the matter yet though, so Huawei fans should be cautiously optimistic until one of them does.