Huawei is trying to sell all its 5G patents to a Western buyer in a bid to placate Trump and dodge national-security concerns

REUTERS/Aly Song

Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei.

• Huawei is offering to sell its 5G technology patents to a Western company in a bid to quell fears about security.
• The US has urged allied nations to reject Huawei's 5G kit on national security grounds, claiming that Huawei is a conduit for Chinese state spying. Huawei denies this.
• CEO Ren Zhengfei told The Economist that the one-off sale of its 5G patents could create a viable competitor for Huawei.
• Ren said he had "no idea" of who might want to take the offer.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Huawei is trying an unusual tactic to try and break its deadlock with the US government. It's offering to sell the rights to all its 5G patents in a one-time-only offer.

Huawei's CEO Ren Zhengfei told the Economist's Hal Hodson that the company is offering to bundle up its 5G patents, licenses, code, and technical blueprints in a one-off transaction.

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The idea is to create a rival for the Chinese tech giant. "A balanced distribution of interests is conducive to Huawei's survival," Ren told Hodson.

Ren said he had "no idea" who might be interested in buying, and did not put a figure on how much Huawei's 5G "stack" might be worth. Hodson said it could run to tens of billions of dollars given the amount of money Huawei has poured into research.

The move is designed to placate concerns in the West about Huawei's 5G dominance, coupled with the national security concerns from the Trump administration, which claims that Huawei acts as a proxy for the Chinese government to spy. Huawei denies this.

Huawei's rollout of 5G has been actively targeted by the Trump administration, which has been advising allies to reject Huawei's kit or risk damaging their relationship with the US.

Read more: The Trump administration is warning allies to stay away from Huawei - but not everyone's listening

At the same time the US has hamstrung Huawei by placing it on a trade blacklist, although Huawei has now received two 90-day licenses to give American firms time to disentangle themselves from the company.

The major threat from the blacklisting is cutting Huawei off from Google. Huawei phones all run Google's Android operating system, and come with Google's bundle of apps including the Google Play Store, which allows users to download other popular apps such as Instagram and WhatsApp.

Although Huawei has developed its own operating system as a plan B, being cut off from the world's most popula apps would put Huawei phones at a major disadvantage.

It is unclear whether strategy floated by Ren will do anything to appease the US, whether China would approve the sale, or even whether Huawei will find a buyer.