The founder said that Huawei has replaced more than 13,000 parts imposed by US trade sanctions
The Huawei founder said the company has replaced more than 13,000 parts in its products that have been affected by US trade sanctions, according to a text of a letter published by a Chinese university on Friday.
According to the text published by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei said that over the past three years, Huawei has replaced 13,000 components with domestic Chinese alternatives and redesigned 4,000 circuit boards for its products. He said that circuit board production has “settled down”.
The comments, which Reuters could not independently verify, provided a window into Huawei’s efforts to bounce back from US trade restrictions. Since 2019, Huawei, a major supplier of equipment used in 5G telecom networks, has been the target of successive rounds of US export controls.
These controls cut off both Huawei’s supply of chips from US companies and its access to US technology tools to design its own chips and have them made by partners. Last year, the Biden administration also banned the sale of new Huawei equipment in the United States.
The university said Ren made the remarks in a conversation with Chinese technology experts on February 24. The university posted the version on its website on Friday. A Huawei representative in the United States did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.
Ren said that Huawei invested $23.8 billion (roughly Rs. 1,96,425 crores) in research and development in 2022, “As our profitability improves, we will continue to increase R&D spending.”
The reports come after analysts said Huawei showed off 5G telecoms equipment at an industry conference in Barcelona where the origins of all the chips on its circuit boards were blacked out.
© Thomson Reuters 2023