TRUMP HITS HUAWEI ANEW BY BLOCKING SHIPMENTS OF INTEL CHIPS

The Trump administration has notified Huawei suppliers, including chipmaker Intel, that it is revoking certain licenses to sell to the Chinese company and intends to reject dozens of other applications to supply the telecommunications firm, people familiar with the matter told Karen Freifeld and Alexandra Alper of Reuters.,

The action - likely the last against Huawei Technologies under Republican President Donald Trump - is the latest in a long-running effort to weaken the world’s largest telecommunications equipment maker, which Washington sees as a national security threat.

The notices came amid a flurry of US efforts against China in the final days of Trump’s administration. Democrat Joe Biden will take the oath of office as president on Wednesday.

Huawei and Intel Corp declined to comment. Commerce said it could not comment on specific licensing decisions, but said the department continues to work with other agencies to “consistently” apply licensing policies in a way that “protects US national security and foreign policy interests.”

In an email seen by Reuters documenting the actions, the Semiconductor Industry Association said on Friday the Commerce Department had issued “intents to deny a significant number of license requests for exports to Huawei and a revocation of at least one previously issued license.”

Sources familiar with the situation, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there was more than one revocation.

One of the sources said eight licenses were yanked from four companies.

The news triggered moderate profit-taking in some semiconductor related shares in Asia. Korea’s Samsung Electronics fell 1.5% while Japan’s Advantest shed 1.5% and Tokyo Electron lost 0.8%.

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