What’s new: Taiwanese chipmaker MediaTek Inc. applied to the U.S. government for permission to continue supplying Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. after new U.S. restrictions come into force next month, MediaTek confirmed to Caixin.
“We’ve submitted our application to the U.S. government and are waiting” for a response, a spokesperson for MediaTek told Caixin Friday. “MediaTek reaffirms our stance that we stick to any rules and provisions related to global trade,” the spokesperson said.
The background: Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Commerce unveiled a set of rules restricting the sale of microchips and other technology to Huawei.
According to the rules, any company in the world using any U.S. technology would be banned from supplying chips to Huawei without first obtaining a license from the U.S. government. The new rules were in addition to a previous policy announced in May giving companies a 120-day grace period to continue supplying Huawei.
After the announcement of the May rules which target only companies that make chips for Huawei based on Huawei designs, MediaTek emerged as one of the few choices for Huawei for sourcing off-the-shelf smartphone chipsets.
Related: Five Things to Know About the New U.S. Restrictions on Huawei
Contact reporter Mo Yelin (yelinmo@caixin.com).
