The arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou has put another twist on the temporary U.S.-China trade truce. For some U.S. companies, the risk is more imminent.
Major suppliers for Huawei saw their stocks got hammered on Thursday following the news. Investors are worried, if U.S. regulators rule that Huawei violated the Iran sanctions, Huawei suppliers’ revenue could be dampened, or even worse — suppliers could be forced to cut ties with the Chinese tech giant.
Broadcom, for example, fell more than 5% during early trading on Thursday. In the most recent quarter, the semiconductor maker pocketed $285 million (2090 million yuan) from Huawei, accounting for about 6% of its total revenue. NeoPhotonics, a San Jose, Calif.-based networking modules manufacturer’s shares plunged more than 20% due to its dependence on Huawei.
In November, Huawei released a list of its key suppliers for the first time and named 92 suppliers as its core suppliers. Thirty-three U.S. companies, including Qualcomm, Intel and Broadcom, are among the awardees.
In a similar case earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Commerce banned American companies from selling components to ZTE, another Chinese telecom firm and Huawei’s major rival. That move forced ZTE to cease major operations for several months until the two sides reached a settlement, including a $1 billion fine in June. The ZTE case highlighted the reliance of Chinese high-tech companies on imported components.
In a letter to suppliers on Thursday, Huawei accused the U.S. of being a bully. The company also said it is interdependent with suppliers and assured them it will maintain its business relationship.
“We believe that the U.S. government pressuring a commercial business through various measures is a violation from the spirit of free economy and fair competition,” Huawei said. “However, we will not change our partnership with global supply chain partners because of the unreasonableness of the U.S. government.”
Here is the list of Huawei’s top U.S. suppliers, according to Goldman Sachs:
Intel (INTC)
Advanced Micro Device (AMD)
Broadcom (AVGO)
Qualcomm (QCOM)
Microsoft (MS)
Nvidia (NVDA)
CommScope (COMM)
Texas Instruments (TXN)
Seagate Technology (STX)
Micron Technology (MU)
Qorvo (QRVO)
Flex (FLEX)
Skyworks (SWKS)
Corning (GLW)
Analog Devices (ADI)
NeoPhotonics (NPTN)
Western Digital (WDC)
Lumentum (LITE)
II-VI (IIVI)
Finisar (FNSR)
Maxim Integrated (MXIM)
Keysight Technology (KEYS)
Marvell Technology (MRVL)
Krystal Hu covers technology and trade for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter.
Read more:
Trump thinks tariffs are the only way to get China to change, some say no
Why you won’t feel much pain from Trump’s tariffs this holiday season
Amazon bought Whole Foods a year ago. Here’s what has changed