Syed Imran Haider 
Earlier in the week, Intel disclosed that its sales would take a hit. After some of the chipmaker’s export licenses were revoked by the United States for a customer in China.
Beijing complained that this move was taking things too far in the name of national security. The name of the customer in China was not disclosed in the filing submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The reasoning
It had been reported earlier that licenses had been revoked by the US. That allowed companies like Qualcomm and Intel to ship chips used for headsets and laptops to Huawei Technologies.
The Chinese telecoms equipment maker has been sanctioned by the US. It released its first AI-enabled laptop last month called the MateBook X Pro.
Republican lawmakers had criticized the release, as the laptop is powered by Intel’s Core Ultra 9 processor.
They claimed that this showed the Commerce Department had allowed Intel to sell its chips to Huawei. Intel’s share price took a hit after its announcement.
The company said that its revenue for the second quarter would remain in the range of $12.5 billion to $13.5 billion, but likely below the midpoint.
The US stance
Qualcomm also disclosed that some of its export licenses had also been revoked where Huawei is concerned.
Gina Raimondo, the Commerce Secretary, said that this move was not a change in their policy, as they consider Huawei a threat.
She said that their focus on AI had increased and they take action when they learn more about the capabilities of this technology.
Therefore, she said that they would revoke licenses of chips that had been approved previously, but were found to have AI capabilities.
The US crackdown on tech exports to China has drawn heavy criticism from the Chinese foreign ministry at every step.
It was no different this time around, as the ministry said that the US was going overboard and abusing export controls for suppressing Chinese firms.
The Background
Huawei had first been placed on the trade restrictions list back in 2019 because the US feared that the company could spy on Americans.
This was part of a broader effort to handicap the ability of China to strengthen its military. A difficult-to-obtain, special license has to be obtained by suppliers before they can ship to Huawei.
The newest restrictions are the latest effort of President Joe Biden to deny China access to the US technology in order to thwart Beijing.
Biden has used diplomacy with other democracies, export bans and other tactics to stifle the swift technological advances. China has been making in areas from robotics to quantum computing.
As a matter of fact, he has gone as far as explaining this strategy to Xi Jinping, the Chinese leader. He termed to it as a new normal between the two countries that have different political systems.
