Huawei staff banned from US offices as research arm Futurewei seeks split from Chinese parent after trade-war blacklist
- Futurewei moves its employees to a new IT system and forbids them from using Huawei’s name or logo in communications
- Huawei-owned US firm has hundreds of employees at offices in Silicon Valley and the greater Seattle, Chicago and Dallas areas
The US-based research arm of China’s Huawei Technologies – Futurewei Technologies – has moved to separate its operations from its corporate parent since the US government in May put Huawei on a trade blacklist, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Futurewei had banned Huawei employees from its offices, moved Futurewei employees to a new IT system and forbidden them from using the Huawei name or logo in communications, a Futurewei employee said on condition of anonymity. Huawei would continue to own Futurewei, the employee said.
Milton Frazier, Futurewei’s general counsel, declined to comment on the separation or the strategy behind it, referring questions to Huawei spokesman Chase Skinner. Skinner did not answer questions about the effort.
The division of operations, which has not been previously reported, comes as many US universities have halted research partnerships with Huawei in reaction to US government allegations that the company poses a national security threat.
Many universities are also rethinking their partnerships with other Chinese firms.
Huawei is among the world’s largest telecommunications equipment manufacturers.