The news that Google and US chip makers have frozen the supply of critical software and components to Huawei will have severe consequences for businesses and consumers, including in South Africa. By Duncan McLeod.
Top US corporations from chip makers to Google have frozen the supply of critical software and components to Huawei, complying with a Trump administration crackdown that threatens to choke off China’s largest technology company.
Intel, which had been the biggest beneficiary of a years-long, multibillion-dollar spending spree by the cloud computing industry, signalled an end to an expansion that drove record revenue and profit.
Samsung Electronics intends to invest the equivalent of about R1.7-trillion over the next decade or so to take on Intel and Qualcomm in the business of making advanced chip processors.
Apple put its flagship product, the iPhone, ahead of distaste for the way Qualcomm does business in settling a bitter, two-year legal dispute with the chip maker.
Intel, whose products dominate the world of computing, said it’s going to wind down a multibillion-dollar, multi-decade effort to grab a viable stake of the mobile phone industry.
For Qualcomm, the largest maker of chips that run smartphones, 5G can’t come soon enough.
Semiconductor stocks fell in early trading on Monday after Nvidia cut its fourth-quarter revenue outlook, citing deteriorating macroeconomic conditions, particularly in China, along with weakness in its gaming and data centre divisions.
Intel’s first forecasts for 2019 sent a signal to investors that a torrent of spending on data centres, which has nourished sales and earnings growth for years, is beginning to dry up.
Apple didn’t mind paying a modest technology fee to Qualcomm when it first launched the iPhone, but times have changed.