The British news agency Reuters said on Sunday that Qualcomm had on Friday received a licence from Washington to sell 4G mobile chips to the Chinese firm.

Specific products were not mentioned by a Qualcomm spokeswoman who provided a quote for the report.

New export control rules imposed by the US Government in August have made it well-nigh impossible for Huawei to obtain the SoCs it needs to build its flagship smartphones.

In May 2019, the US placed Huawei on its Entity List; American firms cannot sell products made in the US with more than 25% of American content to companies placed on this list without obtaining a licence.

But Huawei was able to easily skirt around this restriction by getting products it needed supplied by branches of US firms located outside the physical boundaries of the US.

However the August curbs, which follow a tightening of the rules in May this year, mean Huawei's component supply issues will not be over until companies that use American technology to produce semiconductors are able to get a licence to resume supply.

Huawei has used its own own Kirin processors, which are designed by its HiSilicon unit, and made by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, using 5nm chips, for its flagship models, but cannot do so any more. 

Its inability to get these SoCs made stems from the fact that TSMC uses American equipment, and products made using such equipment are off-limits to Huawei due to the restrictions imposed by Washington in August.

iTWire has contacted Qualcomm and Huawei for comment.