In May 2019, the US President made good on his threat to disrupt the supply chain for Huawei. Trump enforced an export ban for telecom gear on which the tech giant relies to make its products. But it has become apparent that Micron is shipping chips to the Chinese smartphone maker.

National security threat

The decision to cut off Huawei from the US telecom gear supply chain was a culmination of a protracted trade war between China and the US. Particularly, President Trump effected an executive order which barred US companies from doing business with foreign firms deemed threats to national security.

According to the US Commerce Department, Huawei falls under the category captured by the executive order. The department views Huawei as an entity which undermines US interests. Once it was included in the list, Huawei could not receive chips and other crucial resources from Intel and Qualcomm.

Micron found an exception

After a comprehensive internal review, Micron concluded that Trump’s executive order does not cover its products.

Sanjay Mehrota, CEO of Micron, told investors that although they suspended exports to Huawei soon after the ban, they resumed the shipping immediately after establishing that doing so would not violate the executive order.

Interestingly, not only Micron seems to have discovered the technicality. According to a Wall Street Journal report Tuesday, Intel and Qualcomm are also shipping chips and other gear to the second largest smartphone maker in the world.

Could Huawei bounce back?

In the immediate aftermath of the ban, Huawei said that unit sales for its smartphones overseas slumped 40%. Interestingly, this drop is just in one month from May 17 to June 16. But with the resumption of the shipments consumer confidence could troop back.

However, this move blunts the impact of the ban on Huawei. Interestingly, the tech giant is the world’s largest maker of telecommunications equipment, and it is making huge strides in 5G. Such bold steps are what the US deems a threat, and perhaps the executive order was supposed to pose the advances. Instead, Huawei revealed that the number of wireless carriers signing onto its platform is ballooning.