Why the chips are down for Qualcomm
Chipmaker Qualcomm is reportedly lobbying the United States government to lift the restrictions on Huawei so that it can sell Snapdragon processors to the Chinese company, warning that a ban could end up handing over a $8 billion (55.7 billion yuan) market share to overseas competitors.
The US administration has been trying to cut off Huawei's supply chain, putting it on its "Entity List" in May 2019 and banning it from purchasing chips and other high-tech items from US suppliers. And now, under US pressure, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. will halt supplies to Huawei after Sept 15.
Chips are the cornerstone of most cutting-edge technologies, determining the advancement of artificial intelligence, 5G, quantum computers among others. In the era of digital transformation and artificial intelligence, the chip industry determines a country's economic and military competitiveness, and correspondingly its national security. The US administration is trying to contain China's technological progress by trying to cut off its chip supply, but this will only end up hurting the US' own businesses and industries.