US curbs to cut Huawei smartphone unit revenue by Sh1tr

Chinese technology giant Huawei said on Friday the impact of US trade restrictions on its business will be less than what it initially feared, though the curbs could push its smartphone unit’s revenue lower by about Sh1trillion ($10 billion) this year.

Huawei Technologies’ Sh10 trillion ($100 billion) business has been hit hard since mid-May after Washington put the world’s second-largest smartphone maker in a so-called Entity List that threatens to cut off its access to essential US components and technology.

In its first assessment of the impact of the restrictions, Huawei founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei said in June the blacklisting would hit the company’s revenue by $30 billion, leaving it without any topline growth for 2019.

“It seems it is going to be a little less than that. But you have to wait till our results in March,” Eric Xu, Huawei’s deputy chairman, said at a news conference to introduce new artificial intelligence chips at its headquarters in Shenzhen.