, but clarified the exemption is mostly limited to allowing sales of parts for existing products — not new ones. It also added 45 more Huawei affiliates to the blacklist.blocking it from buying parts from important US suppliersBut it also created a problem for Futurewei. It meant US Futurewei locations could no longer transfer intellectual property or trade secrets to Huawei's Chinese headquarters or other blacklisted affiliates around the world, the company said.
That could mean Huawei's continued investments in US research and development end up going nowhere. Depending what those projects are, that could be a real loss for the company. Danks didn't specify the nature of the ongoing projects. But in the past, Futurewei workers have developed technologies related to core areas of Huawei's business, such as a method for machine learning on wireless networks and one for encrypted data transfers on 5G networks, according to filings with the US Patent Office.
And Danks said it's unclear whether Huawei will invest in new US research projects going forward. Huawei invested $500 million in Futurewei in 2018 and had planned to invest $600 million in 2019 before it was placed on the blacklist. "This makes it difficult to do that research and development that will go into future products," Danks said.Adding to that difficulty: Many American research universities heeded US government warnings and halted partnerships with Huawei in recent months.