US Officials Doubt the Performance of Huawei's Advanced Chip

An anonymous reader quotes this report from Bloomberg:

The U.S. doubts whether Huawei Technologies Co. can produce the advanced chip in its new smartphone at the scale or performance threshold necessary to meet market demand, a senior Commerce Department official told lawmakers Tuesday. 'Neither the performance nor yields may match the market of the device,' Thea Kendler, assistant secretary for export administration, said during testimony before a House Foreign Affairs Committee oversight panel.

'Moreover, the semiconductor chip that is inside that phone is a poorer performance than what they had years ago,' Kendler said. 'So our export controls are meaningful in slowing China's advanced technology acquisition....'

The [U.S. Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security] is under pressure from Republicans to be tougher on Huawei and its chipmaking partner Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp [or SMIC]. Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul and others have called for the Bureau of Industry and Security to fully cut off both firms from their American suppliers. U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told Bloomberg News in a Monday interview that the U.S. will take the 'strongest possible' action to protect its national security following the breakthrough, while declining to confirm the existence of an investigation into Huawei or SMIC.

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