Donald Trump’s presidency may be over but the U.S.-China tech war he helped spark is alive and well, at least for the time being. In the final days of Trump’s presidency, his administration took sweeping actions, which included tightening restrictions on Chinese technology companies and their suppliers.

Reuters this week reported that the Trump Administration has revoked several licenses required to sell components to Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei. Among those affected by the new restrictions was Intel.

The move came after the Commerce Department last May began requiring all non-U.S. chipmakers using American equipment, intellectual property, or design software to apply for a license to sell chips to Huawei. Huawei rotating CEO Guo Ping said the move put the company, which owns chipmaker HiSilicon, into survival mode.

Things were relatively quiet until December 2020, when the Commerce Department stepped up its restrictions, blacklisting China’s largest semiconductor manufacturer, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC), and enacting additional provisions baring the company from acquiring U.S. technologies required to produce 10-nanometer and smaller chips.

While these efforts have limited Chinese companies ability to produce semiconductors in country, the latest restrictions further reduce their ability to source chips from U.S. chipmakers like Intel.

There are 150-some licenses pending for $120 billion worth of goods and technology, which had been held up because various U.S. agencies “could not agree on whether they should be granted,” according to sources cited in the Reuters report. Additionally, Reuters reports that the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) had received notice of multiple license revocations affecting a wide variety of semiconductor suppliers.

Opposite Directions

These restrictions represent the final throes of the Trump administrations efforts to deny Chinese companies access to U.S. semiconductor technologies.

Over the last several months of his term, Trump’s administration has heaped intense pressure on Huawei in particular. The company has been accused of corporate espionage, intellectual property theft, and has been dogged by questions related to its relationship with the Chinese government.

As part of these efforts, the administration entered into talks with Intel and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) to build new foundries in the United States, a move that would help to secure U.S. supply chains. In short order, TSMC announced plans to build a small chip fab in an undisclosed part of Arizona. The facility would produce chips using the company’s 5-nanometer manufacturing process and is expected to come online sometime in 2024.

Intel, which already owns and operates foundries in the U.S., hasn’t moved in the opposite direction in recent months, under pressure from investors and growing competition from rivals AMD and Apple to employ third-party foundries for manufacturing. Last week, the company announced VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger would be returning to lead Intel, and CEO of two years Bob Swan would be leaving the company in February. Just a week earlier, Intel reportedly entered into talks with TSMC and Samsung to produce its CPUs. If true, this would represent a sea change for the chipmaker which has traditionally kept its CPU manufacturing in house.

Much Remains Unknown

It remains to be seen whether newly sworn in President Joe Biden will keep up the pressure on Chinese firms like Huawei. His rhetoric throughout the 2020 presidential campaign suggest he might. Biden has focused in large part on helping U.S. manufacturing keep up with China.

“If we make smart investments in manufacturing and technology, give our workers and companies the tools they need to compete, use taxpayer dollars to buy American and spark American innovation, stand up to the Chinese government’s abuses, insist on fair trade, and extend opportunity to all Americans, many of the products that are being made abroad could be made here today,“ Biden’s campaign website read.

The president has previously called for a $300 billion investment over four years to bolster U.S. jobs and secure the country’s global leadership. Much of that funding would be directed into research and development in order to help companies catch up with China’s massive ramp in investment over the past two decades.

Likewise, it remains unclear the direction Gelsinger will take Intel. Gelsinger has a long history with Intel going back to the legendary 486 processor architecture that he helped design. He spend nearly 30 years working for the company and even served as the chipmaker’s first CTO before leaving to lead Dell EMC and most recently VMware.

Intel will report its Q4 earnings tomorrow. During the call, the company is expected to detail its plans moving forward.