Qualcomm and Intel are quietly lobbying against Trump’s Huawei ban

U.S. chipmakers such as Qualcomm and Intel are reportedly quietly lobbying the Trump administration to ease the trade ban on Huawei. Citing people familiar with the matter, Reuters has reported that executives from Intel and Xilinx attended a meeting with the Commerce Department late last month in order to discuss a response to Huawei being added to the entity list. Qualcomm, another U.S chipmaker that sells its chips to Huawei, is also said to have pressed the Commerce Department about the same issue.

While the U.S. chipmakers are not denying the potential security risk posed by Huawei’s 5G networking technology, they argue that the company’s smartphones and servers use commonly available components and are a lot less likely to present any serious security concerns. In a scenarios where U.S. companies are completely barred from having business ties with Huawei, they stand to lose billions of dollars that Huawei spends buying components for its smartphones and wearables. In 2018, Huawei spent nearly $11 billion purchasing components from U.S. companies such as Qualcomm, Micron Technology, and Intel. If the ban by the Trump administration is not eased, Huawei will have no…