Huawei provided an update on its plan to licence 5G technology to an international player, stating it had held initial discussions with a number of US companies, Reuters reported.

During a visit to the US, Vincent Pang, SVP and a director at Huawei, said the companies had discussed both a long-term deal and a one-off transfer, noting the talks were in the early stages. He did not name the companies.

Reuters quoted Pang as saying: “There are some companies talking to us, but it would take a long journey to really finalise everything.”

In September, the company’s CEO and founder Ren Zhengfei said it would consider selling access to its 5G technologies to a company based outside of Asia, and later indicated he wants to transfer exclusive rights to create a US-based champion.

The under-fire company was put on a US trade blacklist in May, though continues doing business under a temporary permit.

In addition to imposing sanctions on the company, the US pressed other nations to ban its 5G gear due to security fears.

Huawei has strenuously denied all allegations made by the US and other countries.

Despite the US actions, Huawei recorded better than expected revenue growth in the first nine months of the year, up 24.4 per cent year-on-year to CNY610.8 billion ($86.3 billion).