The US government has revoked licences which allowed Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei to buy older chips from the US semiconductor companies Qualcomm and Intel, financial news agency Bloomberg reported.
The corresponding supply licences have been withdrawn, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the US House of Representatives, Michael McCaul, told Bloomberg.
The US Department of Commerce only confirmed that some export licences for Huawei had been withdrawn, but did not specify which companies were involved. However, according to McCaul, the committee was informed about the withdrawal of the licences.
The US government accuses Huawei of being close to Chinese authorities and therefore sees the network equipment and smartphone provider as a security risk.
US sanctions have been denying Huawei access to modern US technologies for several years. As a result, Huawei smartphones hardly play a role outside of China anymore - despite the company overtaking Samsung as top smartphone player in 2020.
With the special licences that have now been withdrawn, Qualcomm, for example, was still able to supply modems for 4G data radio, but not for the faster 5G networks.
Huawei is trying to replace the chips with domestically developed Chinese units, and continues to have a strong presence in the smartphone market in China.