Huawei building secret chip plants to bypass US sanctions

Huawei Technologies Co is building a collection of secret semiconductor fabrication facilities across China to allow the company to skirt U.S. sanctions, a Washington-based semiconductor association has warned, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday.

Credits: Reuters

The Chinese tech giant moved into chip production last year and is receiving an estimated $30 billion in state funding from the government, the Semiconductor Industry Association said, adding that Huawei has acquired at least two existing plants and is building three others.

The U.S. Commerce Department had added Huawei to its export control list in 2019 over security concerns. The company denies being a security risk. If Huawei is constructing facilities under names of other companies as the Semiconductor Industry Association says, then it might be able to circumvent U.S. government restrictions to indirectly purchase American chip-making equipment, according to the Bloomberg report.

Huawei has been placed on a trade blacklist in the United States, restricting most suppliers from shipping goods and technology to the company unless they were granted licences. Officials have continued to tighten the controls to cut off the company's ability to buy or design the semiconductor chips that power its products.

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• Huawei building secret chip plants in China - report

• Aims to bypass US sanctions imposed in 2019

• Received $30 billion in state funding

Source: Reuters