Back in May the media was full of reports that Arm was no longer trading with Chinese companies. The UK chip designer was said to have suspended business with Huawei after the US government placed the company on its ‘banned entity’ list, forbidding US companies to supply it with technology.
Arm had been working very closely with the Huawei–owned semiconductor company, HiSilicon, which purchases the company’s CPU licenses, and the news that it was planning to comply with US demands was seen as a major blow to the Chinese company and the country’s wider electronics industry.
It would now seem that. according to reports, Arm, Arm China and HiSilicon have continued with their close cooperation, despite threats from the US authorities.
Arm is said to have told staff, via an internal memo back in April, to stop “all active contracts, support entitlements, and any pending engagements” with Huawei and its subsidiaries, so this news has come as somewhat of a surprise.
It appears that Arm and Arm China believe that they have found a way to supply technologies to Huawei’s HiSilicon without breaking any laws or regulations. Both are said to be involved in further discussions about future collaboration on new products.
So, despite the threats from the US authorities, these companies have never stopped co-operating, despite suggestions that their relationship had come to an end.
Arm has made clear that as far as Arm IP and architecture licenses are concerned, all Arm customers in China, including Huawei, can get a full set of source code and related technical support because the patents behind its chip design architectures were based on technologies from the UK circumventing the US trade ban.
There have been reports that the Chinese authorities have been warning companies that those that honour the US ban could face retaliation and could be facing ‘permanent consequences’ and ‘punishment’.
If those threats are real technology firms will find themselves in a very difficult situation and, whatever the situation, it simply highlights the complexity that companies face today as a result of countries using trade as a weapon.
Companies can’t afford to ignore these threats because if China does look to retaliate the consequences could be severe for those heavily exposed to the Chinese market.
It does appear, though, that Arm may have found a way through this legal maze.
