As a final blow, the Trump administration revoked dozens of licenses from Huawei suppliers, including chipmaker Intel. The action taken by Donal Trump is his last effort to weaken the world's largest telecommunication company, which they termed as a matter of national security. According to Reuters, the Semiconductor Industry Association said on Friday that the Commerce Department had issued "intents to deny a significant number of license requests for exports to Huawei and a revocation of at least one previously issued license." Some licenses were apparently under review status for many months and are now being denied just a few days before President Trump has to leave the office.

Earlier, almost 150 licenses were said to be in the review status for $120 billion worth of products and technology. Of these, a vast majority of licenses have been reported to be denied, while the eight other licenses were revoked to maintain consistency with the licensing rules. A source confirmed that another $280 billion worth of licenses for Huawei hasn't been processed yet. Huawei suppliers have already been notified of the license cancellation. They have 20 days to respond to the decision. The Department of Commerce has 45 days to issue any changes to the decision, or it becomes the final decision. Companies will have another 45 days to appeal against the final decision.

Meanwhile, Huawei has restarted its efforts to rejuvenate the supply. According to a recent Nikkei Asia report, the company is trying to find more investors to bring in some cash and move forward against all the odds. In fact, the device manufacturer has already acquired stakes in 20 semiconductor suppliers to cover the gap. Huawei has been under fire from the Trump administration since May 2019 and today's action will put the company more in heap.

Samsung has issued a court filing regarding its collaboration with Microsoft on Windows Phone and states that it refuses to fulfill its end of the deal as it now sees the software giant as a direct competitor. The business collaboration agreement between the two companies sees Samsung pay Microsoft north of $1 billion in patent royalties and $6.9 million interest due to payment delays. Microsoft took action in early August in an attempt to collect the cash.

However, that's unlikely to happen if the New York federal court, where the filing is made, decides in favor of Samsung. The company says that because of the Nokia acquisition, Microsoft violated its 2011 deal with Samsung. According to the deal, Samsung had to pay Microsoft royalties in exchange for a patent license on its Android smartphones.

"The agreements, now between competitors, invite charges of collusion," Samsung said in the filing. However, Microsoft won't give up and is "confident" in the strength of its case. We'll continue to cover the development of the court case between the two companies and inform you if Microsoft will get its patent licensing fees or if Samsung will save $1 billion.

VIA