US chip companies just lost their #2 customer

Huawei drama: part deux... Last week we told you about the executive order blacklisting Chinese telecom company Huawei — we focused on companies that buy from Huawei (aka wireless phone icons like Verizon). On Monday, stocks of companies that sell to Huawei dropped because orders from Huawei are over.

Chip and dip... "Semiconductor" is the technical term for smartphone engines. NVIDIA, Advanced Micro Devices, Qualcomm, Intel, and other American tech leaders power Apple, Samsung, and Huawei smartphones.

• Going global: As developing countries started adopting smartphones, chip sales surged. Nvidia and AMD shares increased by 10 times from 2016 to 2018.
• The trade war: Orders from China's 1.5B swipe-hungry consumers are frozen thanks to this cold-ish trade war.
• Insult to injury: China expected this, so it stockpiled at least 3-months-worth of chips. So China's lack of orders will be particularly noticeable since previous orders were packed with extras.