U.S. revokes some export licenses to sell chips to Huawei in a bid to curb China's tech power

The U.S. has revoked certain licenses for chip exports to Chinese tech giant Huawei, the Commerce Department told CNBC on Tuesday, in its latest efforts to curb China's tech power.

"We continuously assess how our controls can best protect our national security and foreign policy interests, taking into consideration a constantly changing threat environment and technological landscape," a Commerce spokesperson said in a statement.

"As part of this process, as we have done in the past, we sometimes revoke export licenses,"  the spokesperson said, declining to comment on specific licenses. "But we can confirm that we have revoked certain licenses for exports to Huawei."

Huawei was placed on a U.S. trade blacklist in 2019, which banned U.S. firms from selling technology – including 5G chips – to the Chinese tech giant over national security concerns. In 2020, the U.S. tightened chip restrictions on Huawei, requiring foreign manufacturers using American chipmaking equipment to obtain a license before they can sell semiconductors to Huawei.

Huawei's consumer business, which includes smartphones and laptops, is seeing a resurgence after launching the Mate 60 Pro smartphone in August.

A TechInsights analysis of Huawei's Mate 60 Pro smartphone revealed an advanced chip made by China's top chip maker, SMIC. The smartphone is also said to be equipped with 5G connectivity – a feature which U.S. sanctions had sought to block.

U.S. chip firms Qualcomm and Intel are two of the companies that supply chips to Huawei. Qualcomm in an SEC filing earlier this month said it expects operations to be "further impacted" from its customers, such as Huawei, developing their own chips.

"While we have continued to sell integrated circuit products to Huawei