AOS settles with us over unauthorized shipping to Huawei in China

By Karen Freifeld

(Reuters) – Alpha and Omega Semiconductors (AOS) have agreed to pay a settlement with the US Department of Commerce to ship goods to China’s huawei technology in violation of export restrictions, according to a departmental order posted Wednesday.

AOS engaged in banned acts by transferring 1,650 power controllers, smart power stages and related accessories to Huawei in the year Huawei was added to the restricted US trade list in 2019.

The item was designed and produced by foreigners, but said that since AOS exported from the US, it could export control regulations. Suppliers to companies with a restricted trade list known as entity lists are required to obtain a license.

“This resolution will not affect AOS’s ongoing business operations and will end the US government’s five-year investigation,” the company said. “AOS is pleased to end this issue with limited controlled export control fees alone.”

US officials have been investigating AOS’s deal with Huawei since 2019, the company said in an SEC filing earlier this year. In January 2024, the Justice Department closed its investigation without charge, the application said, but a civil investigation by the Department of Commerce was underway.

On April 16, 2025, AOS said it had received a letter from commercial claiming it was breaching its export control regulations, and the company met to discuss possible resolution.

Headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, AOS operates both in the US and Asia. We have a wafer manufacturing facility in Hillsboro, Oregon.

In 2020, the US added it to Huawei’s Entity Listing and expanded its authority to suspend shipments of diplomatic products to Huawei.

(Reporting by Karen Freiferd, Editing by Mark Porter and Jamie Freed)