Huawei said it has not discussed 5G chipsets with Apple: the president

SHENZHEN (Reuters) – Huawei Technologies, one of the world's largest smartphone makers, has not discussed with Apple Inc. the supply of 5G chipsets, chairman of the board Ken Hu said on Tuesday.

Hu made the remarks at the company's annual global analyst summit at its headquarters in Shenzhen, southern China. His comment came after founder Ren Zhengfei told CNBC that Huawei was "open" to selling its fifth generation of chips (5G) to Apple.

"We have not had discussions with Apple on this issue," Hu said, adding that Huawei was not considering becoming a chipset supplier at the moment. He also said he was eagerly awaiting Apple's competition in the 5G phone market.

Huawei said Huawei signed 40 commercial contracts for the construction of a 5G telecommunications infrastructure at the end of March, compared with more than 30 previously.

Huawei's prospects have been clouded over the past year, with the United States fearing that their equipment will be used by the Chinese government for espionage purposes. Washington has also urged its allies to ban Huawei from building 5G mobile networks.

Huawei dismissed security issues as unfounded.

Huawei is also the world's leading manufacturer of telecommunications equipment. HiSilicon, its internal semiconductor group, also designs chipsets used in its products.

Huawei's founder, Ren Zhengfei, said this week in an interview with CNBC that the company was "open to" selling its 5G modem chips to Apple, without further details.

His comments were made after Huawei repeatedly denied his intention to become a chip supplier to compete with Qualcomm and Intel.

Huawei launched in January its 5G modem, the Balong 5000, which is according to him the most powerful of the sector, as well as a 5G base station chipset dubbed Tiangang.

Last month, the company announced a 25% increase in its net profit in 2018, to 59.3 billion yuan ($ 9 billion), while revenue from its network equipment business fell from 1.3% to 294 billion yuan because of investment cycles in the telecommunications industry.