FCC Uses Chip-Level Rule to Block 2 Devices Containing Huawei Silicon
A dashboard camera and a video transmitter were pulled from US shelves because both contain the same HiSilicon processor.
By David Almasi ·
The Federal Communications Commission blocked two consumer devices from US sale on October 23, 2026, marking the first enforcement under a rule that lets the agency target the silicon inside a product instead of its brand name or model number. The affected products are a dashboard camera and a wireless video transmitter. Both contain the Hi3516CV610 UHD Smart Vision, a system-on-chip designed for vehicle dashcams and wireless CCTV systems.
HiSilicon, the company that makes the chip, is a subsidiary of Huawei. Huawei and its subsidiaries appear on the FCC Covered List of entities the agency considers a risk to US national security. The rule under which these devices were blocked was adopted recently to address a gap in enforcement: rebranded products carrying parts from Chinese manufacturers named on US export restriction lists could still reach the market. Because the rule applies to the chip itself, the agency does not have to track every individual product or label.
The Hi3516CV610 combines WiFi, Ethernet, video encoding hardware, an Arm Cortex-A7 processor and a neural processing unit for AI functions. The FCC identified the neural processing unit as the concern, describing the device as containing logic-bearing smart components made by entities on the Covered List. According to the chip data sheet, the neural processing unit runs an Intelligent Video Engine with a built-in multimodal large model and transformer feature acceleration, allowing the system to track relationships between objects across video frames. The data sheet lists pets, faces, human figures and parcels as subjects the system can follow. The FCC has stated the same logic-bearing AI could be used for surveying US citizens and logging faces for foreign surveillance.
Huawei has faced prior scrutiny over AI chips. The company used shell companies to get TSMC to manufacture AI chips after a US request that TSMC stop supplying a list of Chinese customers. That episode is one of several Huawei controversies that have led to product bans in the United States. Reader reactions to the original report were mixed. Some called the move protectionism. Others questioned whether American surveillance differs from foreign surveillance. One commenter raised whether the FCC authority covers only wireless devices, and another responded that the Communications Act of 1934 directs the FCC to protect wired and wireless interstate and international communications. Another commenter argued bans should have been based on silicon from the start, given how many revisions and regional variants a single product can have.
