Intel survived bid to halt sales worth millions to Huawei

— Intel has survived an effort to halt hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of chip sales to Huawei, two people familiar with the matter said, giving one of the world’s largest chipmakers more time to sell to the heavily sanctioned Chinese telecoms company.

U.S. President Joe Biden has long been under pressure to revoke a license, issued by the Trump administration, that allows Intel to ship advanced central processors to Huawei for use in laptops.

The push came from Intel rival Advanced Micro Devices, which argued it was unfair that it did not receive a license to sell similar chips to Huawei and from China hawks, who are seeking to stop all sales to the Chinese firm.

Intel’s ability to hang on to a license to sell chips while a rival could not obtain similar permission demonstrates the uneven and uncertain terrain companies face as the U.S. seeks to limit Beijing’s access to sophisticated American technology, especially to a heavily sanctioned company like Huawei.

It has also allowed Huawei to keep a small but growing share of the global laptop market, while AMD was deprived of hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of sales to the Chinese sanctioned firm, data showed.

Republican Senator Marco Rubio called on the Biden administration to revoke Intel’s license to sell to Huawei “immediately” following the Reuters report.

“No American company, especially those receiving taxpayer funding, should be fueling its innovation,” he said, referencing Intel’s expected grant from the Commerce Department to expand its U.S. chip production.