Texas Instruments CEO Rich Templeton – facing challenges with China and Huawei overall – sees the country as an important part of the company's efforts.

During a conference hosted by Bernstein, Templeton signaled TI gets around 4 percent of its revenue from Huawei, the company that’s come under intense scrutiny from the White House. During the interview, he was asked how big of a customer Huawei was for the Dallas semiconductor manufacturer.

“It’s less than 5 — I think Dave was saying it’s about 4, a little under 4 percent when you look at 2018 ... in that [range],” he said, apparently referring to Dave Pahl, vice president of Investor Relations.

The federal government recently blacklisted Huawei — which it accuses of aiding Beijing in espionage — and threatened to cut it off from the U.S. software and semiconductors it needs to make its products, according to Bloomberg. The ban, which had been anticipated, hamstrings the world’s largest provider of networking gear and No. 2 smartphone vendor.

The Huawei dispute is seen as a part of the trade tensions between the two countries.

Templeton sees a lot of promise with China.

“We still think that there’s opportunity to grow in China – grow with our customers in China; we’ll invest accordingly,” Templeton said at the investor conference. “We think it’s more opportunity than risk. Is it different today than it was five years ago? Yep. OK, now get over it. Let’s get back to work on those things.”

The comments come after the company reported first-quarter results last month that showed sales declining during the period, but still topped analyst estimates. TI (Nasdaq: TXN) is grappling with a slowdown in the semiconductor industry that began last year.

By: DocMemory
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