Meanwhile, the company continues to lobby the US government for permission to sell 5G products, including its latest premium mobile chipset, Snapdragon 888, to Huawei – and is still waiting.
The CEO of Qualcomm, Cristiano Amon, said at the 2020 Snapdragon Tech Summit that the company has been approved to provide calculation products and WiFi Products for Huawei, which includes some 4G chips products.
In May 2019, the US government issued an executive order banning US companies from selling chips to Chinese companies, including Huawei, due to national security concerns. The restrictions became tighter and tighter thereafter, with the US eventually requiring all overseas semiconductor manufacturers to use US technology to get permission from the US Commerce Department to do business with Huawei. In the past several months, Qualcomm has been lobbying for permission and still has several applications pending approval.
Qualcomm announced its latest premium mobile chipset, Snapdragon 888, on December 1, 2020. The Snapdragon 888 is Qualcomm's first 5nm process chip and will be used on 5G smartphones. Some 2021 Android flagships from China domestic companies, such as Xiaomi, Oppo, One Plus, and Meizu, will be powered by Snapdragon 888. According to Cristiano Amon, Qualcomm hopes to deepen co-operation with Huawei in the 5G area, however, the company is still waiting for permission to sell 5G products, such as Snapdragon 888, to Huawei.