US Lawmakers Angry After Huawei Launches Laptop With New Intel AI Chip

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Republican lawmakers on Friday criticized the Biden administration after sanctioned Chinese telecommunications equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop equipped with an Intel AI chip this week.

The United States placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for violations of Iran-related sanctions, part of a broader effort to halt Beijing’s technological advances.

Placement on the list means the company’s U.S. suppliers will have to seek a special, hard-to-obtain license before shipping to it.

One such license, issued by the Trump administration, allowed Intel to ship core processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners urged the Biden administration to revoke that license, but many accepted it would expire later this year. . year and will not be renewed.

Huawei’s launch on Thursday of its first AI-enabled laptop, the MateBook X Pro powered by Intel’s new Core Ultra 9 processor, shocked and angered them because it suggested that the Commerce Department had approved shipments of the new chip to to Huawei.

Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik said in a post on social media platform X that the laptop “makes it clear” that the Commerce Department has given the green light for shipments of the new chip to Huawei.

“It is unacceptable that the Biden administration is actively working to undermine U.S. national security by allowing our greatest strategic adversary access to cutting-edge American technology,” Stefanik said.

The Commerce Department declined to comment. Huawei and Intel did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Another Republican representative, Michael McCaul, echoed Stefanik’s comments in a statement emailed to Reuters. “These approvals must stop,” he said. “Two years ago, I was told that licensing for Huawei would be stopped. Today, it doesn’t seem like the policy has changed.”

A source familiar with the matter said the chips were shipped under an existing license. They are not covered by recent widespread restrictions on AI chip shipments to China, the source and another person said.

(Reporting by Alexandra Alper and Karen Freifeld; Editing by Leslie Adler)