IP Vendor ARM Also Interrupts Business With Huawei

Shortly after Huawei was placed on a trade blacklist, forcing Google to stop collaborating with the company, a new report from BBC claims that UK-based IP vendor ARM has also ‘suspended business’ with the company and all of its subsidiaries. 

BCC says that ARM was informed of the decision on May 16th and has instructed its employees to put to a stop “all active contracts, support entitlements, and any pending engagements” with the Chinese giant as well as to not “engage in technical discussions, or otherwise discuss technical matters with Huawei, HiSilicon or any of the other named entities”.

The Arm staff was also instructed to “politely decline and stop” any conversations regarding to the business if they come in contact with Huawei employees at any industry events.

While ARM is, indeed, a UK-based company, it functions as a multi-national entity and develops its technology all around the globe, with major design centers situated in San Jose and Austin, in the U.S. That technically means that its products contain “US-origin technology”, which qualifies the company to adhere to the rules of the US trade blacklist. 

Huawei seemed determined to keep fighting against the ban, one way or another, having stated that the company has been preparing for such an outcome but this current situation might prove to be the biggest obstacle Huawei has to face to date, as the company relies heavily on the Arm IP products. 

Huawei’s chips are currently built “with Arm’s underlying technology” that the company does pay a license for. 

“ARM is complying with the latest restrictions set forth by the US government and is having ongoing conversations with the appropriate US government agencies to ensure we remain compliant.” the company said in a press statement “ARM values its relationship with our long-time partner HiSilicon and we are hopeful for a swift resolution on this matter.“

Huawei issued a new statement of its own, making it clear that it does not hold the companies responsible for the actions they had been forced to take after the trade blacklist was put into effect. 

“We value our close relationships with our partners, but recognise the pressure some of them are under, as a result of politically motivated decisions,” the press statement said “We are confident this regrettable situation can be resolved and our priority remains to continue to deliver world-class technology and products to our customers around the world.”