With the US Trump administration's export ban, the situation over Huawei, a major Chinese telecommunications equipment company, is becoming more severe. What could be a "fatal injury" to smartphone development is the policy of suspending transactions by British Arm Holdings, which holds a license for core semiconductor design. In fact, the company is under the umbrella of the SoftBank Group, and Masayoshi Son, chairman and president (61), has the right to kill and kill.
Arm does not manufacture semiconductors in-house, but specializes in development and design, and its biggest feature is that it uses technology usage fees from semiconductor manufacturers as a source of revenue.
Huawei has an overwhelming share of about 90% in semiconductor design for smartphones, and Huawei also designs many semiconductors based on Arm's license, but Arm is said to have instructed employees to suspend transactions.
Huawei's CEO, Ren Zhengfei, told the Chinese media that he was "prepared for a collision" and is proud of the results of his own development of semiconductors and other products, and emphasized that the embargo will not have a significant impact.
It seems that there is no problem with the current smartphone license, but if the technology licensing is suspended for a long time, it is expected that new product development will become difficult.
The SoftBank Group acquired this arm in 2016. Softbank and Huawei are closely related to each other in base stations, but for Mr. Son, "consideration" for the Trump administration is also indispensable.
At the same time, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced its intention to approve the merger plan of the US mobile phone No. 4 Sprint and No. 3 T-Mobile US under Softbank, but the U.S. Department of Justice opposes it. It's the situation.
How does Mr. Son move to the edge of the United States and China?