UK-based ARM told its staff that it should suspend its work with Huawei, according to internal documents obtained by the BBC.
ARM instructed staff to suspend all active contracts, support benefits and any outstanding commitments with Huawei and its subsidiaries in compliance with the recent US business campaign.
ARM designs are the foundation for most mobile processors worldwide, and the company is concerned about being affected by the US embargo. In an internal memo, it says its designs contain Native American technology and as a result, it believes it is affected by Trump's ban.
One analyst described the move, if long-term, as a blow to Huawei's insurmountable work, saying: ARM is the basis of Huawei smart phone chips designs, so it is an insurmountable obstacle for the Chinese company, and it greatly affects its ability to develop Chips.
Huawei relies on ARM for its chip architectures for its Kirin processors, pays for a license, and without licenses, Huawei and its HiSilicon semiconductor company can not continue to manufacture Kirin processors using ARM designs.
Based in Cambridge, ARM is the largest technology company in the UK and has been acquired by Softbank Group. The company employs 6,000 people and has eight offices in the United States.
ARM chip design was founded in 1990 and acquired by the Japanese telecom giant SoftBank Group in September 2016, but its headquarters are still in Cambridge, UK.
The company does not manufacture the processors themselves, but licenses the semiconductor technology to others. In some cases, manufacturers receive a building permit, which determines how processors handle orders, giving chip makers greater freedom to customize their designs.
In other cases, manufacturers get the basic design of the processors, which describe how the chip transistors are arranged, but these schemas and designs still need to be combined with other elements - such as memory and radios - to create what is referred to as the on-chip system.
The company advised its employees to send a note to inform relevant Huawei employees that, because of the US decision, they are no longer allowed to provide support or technology - be it software, code or other updates - or participate in technical discussions with Huawei or any of its other entities.
The ban also appears to apply to ARM China, which was established in China to enable ARM to develop, sell and support its products in the region, and ARM Holdings holds a 49 percent stake.
While HiSilicon and Huawei freely continue to use and manufacture existing chips, the ban means they will not be able to resort to a company designed for chips to help develop components for future devices.
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