The FCC blocked a dashboard camera and a wireless video transmitter this week because each carries HiSilicon chips, and on October 22 it called this its first enforcement under the component rules that took effect on October 13. Neither device had been authorized yet. The FCC named no manufacturer, model, or part number, so all anyone outside knows is the product category and the chip maker.

Those rules bar equipment authorization for devices that contain logic-bearing parts made by anyone on the Covered List, not only devices made by those companies. HiSilicon isn’t listed by name. Huawei is, and a footnote on the list reads every named producer as including its subsidiaries and affiliates, which is how DroneXL lays out the legal path. The release quotes HiSilicon’s own marketing against it, a chip “designed for the surveillance market” with built-in detection algorithms for human faces, and Chairman Brendan Carr called such devices “an obvious and unacceptable risk to the nation and our people.” One trade outlet pairs that description with HiSilicon’s Hi3516CV610 camera chip; that match is the outlet’s, not the FCC’s.

Quoting the marketing is color. The supplier’s name is the test.

I’ve written about HiSilicon mostly as the phone and AI-accelerator story: the July deep dive on a company that was supposed to die in 2020, the Kirin 9050 Pro folded in half, the Ascend 960DT pulled forward three quarters. None of that is what the FCC touched. It surprised me that the first target is neither a phone nor an AI accelerator but surveillance-camera silicon, a product line I’d never have guessed the new rules would catch first.

The release doesn’t say how the Office of Engineering and Technology found the chips. The rule leans on attestation: the applicant states that no covered component is inside, and DroneXL’s read of the order is that internal photographs are part of every certification filing, so either the applicant disclosed the part or somebody looked closely at a board. A further notice adopted with the rules asks whether every application should include a hardware and software bill of materials, moving the answer from a photograph to the paperwork.

The rule also only runs forward. Gear authorized before October 13 keeps its authorization, and applications pending that day are exempt unless the applicant later changes a logic-bearing part, so both blocked filings must have been made or amended on or after that date.

I want the FCC to release the grantee codes or FCC IDs so other buyers of the same chip can see whether they’re next. Without them, this is one press release and two anonymous devices.

Sources

FCC, FCC Blocks Two Devices Containing Foreign Surveillance Chips, October 22, 2026
Light Reading, FCC blocks two devices powered by Huawei silicon subsidiary, October 22, 2026
DroneXL, FCC blocks dash cam and video transmitter over HiSilicon chips in first component ban, October 22, 2026
Telecom Lead, FCC Blocks Dashboard Camera and Wireless Video Transmitter Over Huawei HiSilicon Surveillance Chip, October 22, 2026