China’s Huawei Technologies Co Ltd (華為) laid off more than two-thirds of the 850-strong workforce at its Futurewei Technologies Inc research arm in the US after being blacklisted by the US government.
Futurewei, which has offices in Silicon Valley and the greater Seattle, Chicago and Dallas areas, said it cut more than 600 jobs.
The unit, set up in part to work with universities and researchers, recorded US$510 million in operating costs last year.
Huawei is the world’s largest telecommunications equipment manufacturer. The US Department of Commerce in May placed the firm on its “entity list” of organizations that pose security risks. The US Department of Justice has filed charges against the firm alleging theft of trade secrets and other crimes.
Huawei said the job cuts, effective on Monday, were “due to the curtailment of business operations” caused by the US government’s actions.
The trade blacklist has made it illegal for Futurewei to transfer sensitive technologies to its parent company. The blacklist also restricts Huawei from purchasing products from US technology companies.
Futurewei began laying off workers on Monday, Reuters had reported earlier citing employees, including one who spoke as he left the company’s Silicon Valley campus.
One employee, who declined to give his name, said he had been laid off, as he put a bag full of personal belongings into his vehicle. At least half a dozen staff with boxes were seen leaving the office before noon on Monday.
An employee not affected by the layoffs said work had come to a standstill since Huawei was blacklisted.
“On the 17th of May, Huawei asked everyone at Futurewei to upload everything to the Huawei cloud, right before the ban took effect,” the employee said. “After that basically Futurewei has stopped doing any work — almost stopped everything.”
Futurewei has filed more than 2,100 patents in such areas as telecommunications, 5G cellular networks, and video and camera technologies, according to data from the US Patent and Trademark Office.
Huawei employed about 1,500 people in the US, including the 850 in Futurewei prior to the layoffs. The rest of Huawei’s US employees manage its supply chain, customer support or serve functions such as public affairs.
It had added sales executives and chip certification engineers given plans to enter the US smartphone market, but its headcount has steadily declined since January last year, when a highly anticipated deal to enter the US smartphone market with AT&T Inc and Verizon Communications Inc collapsed at the last minute due to pressure from the US government.
Netherlands-based semiconductor equipment supplier ASML Holding NV yesterday said that it is planning to hire an additional 1,000 people in Taiwan this year in response to growing demand from clients. ASML had previously planned to recruit 600 people this year, but that the plan has been adjusted upward, ASML vice president and ASML Taiwan general manager Grace Wang (汪佳慧) told reporters. ASML has a workforce of more than 4,500 in Taiwan, accounting for about 10 percent of its global total, Wang said. This year’s recruitment campaign would focus on adding people in the customer support, manufacturing and supply chain domains to assist ASML
UNDER MICROSCOPE: Taiwan detained three people who allegedly conspired to buy servers in Taiwan and export them using fraudulent documentation, prosecutors said Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Saturday urged Super Micro Computer Inc to tighten up on compliance after Taiwan detained three people this week for allegedly making fraudulent declarations about artificial intelligence (AI) servers made by its US partner. The development marked the nation’s first crackdown on semiconductor smuggling, which grew after the US slapped restrictions on exports of high-end chips such as Nvidia AI accelerators to China. Nvidia is “rigorous” in explaining regulations to all of its partners, Huang told reporters after arriving in Taipei. “Ultimately Super Micro has to run their own company,” he said in response to
Nvidia Corp yesterday announced that CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) would attend an employee meeting in Taipei tomorrow to celebrate the launch of the company’s Taiwan headquarters project. Huang would attend a gathering at the site of Nvidia’s planned headquarters in Beitou Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區), the company said in a statement. After arriving in Taiwan on Saturday last week, Huang told reporters that he plans to meet with Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家), and would attend the groundbreaking ceremony for Nvidia’s Taiwan headquarters tomorrow. Nvidia has not yet applied
Huawei Technologies Co (華為) said it has come up with a new pathway to shorten its gap with industry leader Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), potentially achieving a breakthrough in making advanced semiconductors without cutting-edge equipment. Right now there is about a five-year gap between what TSMC is capable of and what Huawei, together with its manufacturing partner Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (中芯), can produce. Huawei is to start making 1.4-nanometer chips by 2031 with its own “LogicFolding” technology, Huawei semiconductor chief He Tingbo (何庭波) said in a rare public appearance during a chip conference yesterday, while TSMC has
RSS