Intel sees reduced sales due to cancellation of export licenses to China

JAKARTA – Intel announced on Wednesday (May 8) that its sales would decline after the United States revoked part of the chipmaker’s export license for its customers in China, citing national security.

Intel did not disclose the name of a Chinese customer whose license was canceled in its report to the Securities and Exchange Commission. But Reuters reported on Tuesday (May 7) that the United States had revoked licenses that would allow companies including Intel and Qualcomm to ship chips used for laptops and cellphones to the sanctioned Chinese telecommunications equipment maker Huawei Technologies.

The April launch of Huawei’s first artificial intelligence (AI) laptop, the MateBook showed that the Commerce Department had given Intel the green light. light to sell chips to Huawei.

Intel shares fell 2.9% to $29.80 Wednesday afternoon after the company said it expects its second-quarter revenue to remain in the range of 12. 5 and 13.5 billion dollars, but below its midpoint. Intel shares have lost nearly 38% so far this year.

Qualcomm also announced on Wednesday that one of its export licenses to Huawei had been revoked. But the actions have not changed.

“Huawei is a threat,” Commerce Minister Gina Raimondo said Wednesday after a congressional hearing. He added that the move did not constitute a change in policy.

“Maybe we’re focusing more on AI. So when we learn more about the capabilities of AI, that’s when we need to act,” he said. “So if the chips that we licensed before, for example, we now find have AI capabilities, we will revoke the license.”

China’s Foreign Ministry, which has criticized U.S. efforts to control technology exports to China, said in a statement that it opposed the move and that the United States was “exceeding the concept of security and abused export controls to put pressure on Chinese companies. no apparent reason.”

The United States placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 over fears of U.S. espionage, part of a broader effort to harm China’s ability to build up its military. Joining the list means the company’s suppliers must seek hard-to-obtain special licenses before delivery.

The new restrictions on Huawei are US President Joe Biden’s latest attempt to deny China access to America’s most sensitive and sophisticated “urban” technology, in a bid to thwart Beijing.

Biden has used export bans, diplomacy with similar democracies and other means to curb China’s rapid technological advances in areas ranging from quantum computing to robotics, even explaining this strategy to Chinese leader Xi Jinping, as a new norm in the era of competition between countries. two countries and different political systems.

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