US politicians upset by Huawei launch containing latest Intel chip

The offending laptop is the Matebook X Pro Core Ultra, the latter two words in that protracted name referring directly to the Intel Core Ultra processor, which the US chipmaker unveiled late last year. Inevitably, this new chip claims to offer ‘the best AI PC experience’ and is featured prominently in the Chinese listing for the new lappy.

“The launch of Intel Core Ultra represents the unmatched scale and speed at which Intel is enabling AI on the PC,” said Michelle Johnston Holthaus, GM of Intel’s Client Computing Group, at the launch of the chip. “By 2028, AI PCs will comprise 80% of the PC market and together with our vast ecosystem of hardware and software partners, Intel is best positioned to deliver this next generation of computing.”

For several years, US companies have required a special license from their government to sell pretty much anything to Huawei. A month ago Reuters reported that Intel continues to have permission to offer even its most advanced PC chips to Huawei, even as it’s forced to hobble its latest enterprise AI chips for them to be allowed into China, and while its main rival – AMD – is denied that licence.

Now Reuters notes that the launch of the Matebook X Pro Core Ultra has reopened the wound felt by Republican lawmakers who continue to be aggrieved by the President’s refusal to starve Huawei of Intel chips. “One of the greatest mysteries in Washington, DC is why the Department of Commerce continues to allow U.S. technology to be shipped to Huawei,” Republican Congressman Michael Gallagher told Reuters.

One of the many problems created by America’s quixotic attempt to put the Chinese technological genie back in the bottle is that loads of US companies count China as a vital trade partner. So, in a bid to make any unlikely victory slightly less pyrrhic, the US government made a bunch of exceptions, thus undermining the main premise of the initiative.

It’s probably impossible for the US to significantly suppress Chinese technological progress without severely harming itself too. The longer it continues to try, the more ridiculous this strategy appears, and sooner or later it will have to decide whether to double down or, ideally, abandon it.