Huawei’s chipmaking arm said it had turned its “Plan Bs into Plan As overnight” a day after the Trump administration raised the prospect of a US ban on export of parts and components to the Chinese telecoms group.
The Shenzhen-based company is already largely shut out of selling into the US market and has been ramping up its self-sufficiency — along with other Chinese tech groups — ever since Washington imposed a similar export ban on smaller rival ZTE.
That in turn has stoked what some critics describe as the unintended consequence of Washington’s actions: pushing Chinese tech companies to accelerate their own capacity rather than tamping them down.