A report at the beginning of the month surfaced according to which Huawei would be willing to sell its own 5G chips, but only to Apple. The iPhone-maker is in a delicate position with Intel not being ready for the 5G game, and Qualcomm being in the courtroom fighting Apple on several fronts. That leaves Apple with few options, among which Huawei and Samsung.

We have not had discussions with Apple on this issue — Rotating Chairman Ken Hu

Company founder Ren Zhengfei said Huawei was “open” to selling its 5G chips to Apple, but Ken Hu denied the two companies had any discussions on the matter. This doesn’t necessarily take a potential deal out of equation, but reveals the fact that the two tech giants haven’t had any talks on the matter.

Huawei’s Balong 5000 chip is a key component for the company’s fifth generation-compatible phones, and could very well be at the core of a 5G iPhone, if and when that will arrive.