As of March 13th, reports indicate that under U.S. export controls, Intel remains the sole vendor authorized to sell laptop processors to Huawei, while AMD has yet to receive permission, incurring significant losses.
In 2019, Intel secured a license from the Trump administration to sell its laptop processors to Huawei, generating billions of dollars in revenue over the past few years.
In early 2021, following Biden's inauguration, AMD applied for a similar license, but despite three years having passed, there has been no response to their request.
AMD feels this is extremely unfair and claims to have suffered greatly, with its share in Huawei laptops dropping from 47.1% in 2020 to a mere 9.3% in 2023, almost disappearing, while Intel's surged from 52.9% to 90.7%, nearly monopolizing the market.
Internally, AMD estimates this has caused a loss of $512 million, approximately ¥3.68 billion, a substantial amount for the company.
In fact, on February 28, 2023, the U.S. Department of Commerce had reevaluated all Huawei suppliers' licenses and notified relevant companies, but ultimately made no changes; Intel could continue selling, but AMD couldn't.
The specific reasons remain unclear—perhaps Intel is more "compliant"?
Intel's license is also set to expire later this year, with insiders indicating it's highly unlikely to be renewed. This could mean a complete halt in the supply of x86 processors for Huawei laptops.
